PRINCETON,  N.  J. 


BV  4211  .R6  1883 
Robinson,  Ezekiel  Oilman, 
1815-1894. 
Shelf.    Lectures  on  preaching 


Slips  for  Librarians  to  paste  on  Catalogue  Cards. 

N.  B. — Take  out  carefully,  leaving  about  quarter  of  an  inch  at 
the  back.  To  do  otherwise,  would,  in  some  cases,  release  other 
leaves. 


ROBINSON,  E.  G.  Lectures  on  Preaching.  De- 
livered TO  THE  Students  of  Theology  at  Yale 
College,  January  and  February,  1882.  By  E.  G. 
Robinson.  New  York:  Henry  Holt  &  Co.,  1883. 
i2mo,  pp.   214. 

LECTURES  ON  PREACHING.  Delivered  to 
the  Students  of  Theology  at  Yale  College,  Janu- 
ary AND  February,  1882.  By  E.  G.  Robinson.  New 
York:  Henry  Holt  &  Co.,  1883.      i2mo,  pp.  214. 

PREACHING.  Lectures  on  Preaching.  Deliv- 
ered to  the  Students  of  Theology  at  Yale  College, 
January  and  February,  1882.  By  E.  G.  Robinson. 
New  York:  Henry  Holt  &  Co.,  1883.     i2mo,  pp.  214. 

THEOLOGY.  Lectures  on  Preaching.  Delivered 
TO  the  Students  of  Theology  at  Yale  College, 
January  and  February,  1882.  By  E.  G.  Robinson, 
New  York:  Henry  Holt  &  Co.,  ^883.     i2mo,  pp.  214. 


LECTURES  ON  PREACHING 


DELIVERED  TO  THE  STUDENTS  OF  THEOLOGY 
AT  YALE  COLLEGE 

JANUARY  AND   FEBRUARY,   1882 


E.    G.    ROBINSON 

President  of  Brown  University 


NEW    YORK 

HENRY   HOLT  AND   COMPANY 

1883 


[From  the  Records  of  the  Corporation  of  Yale  College,  April  J2, 
iS7i.-\ 

"Voted,  To  accept  the  offer  of  Mr.  Henry  N.  Sage  of  Brooklyn, 
of  the  sum  of  ten  thousand  dollars,  for  the  founding  of  a  Lectureship 
in  the  Theological  Department,  in  a  branch  of  Pastoral  Theology, 
to  be  designated  '  The  Lyman  Beecher  Lectureship  on  Preaching, '  to 
be  filled  from  time  to  time,  upon  the  appointment  of  the  Corporation, 
by  a  minister  of  the  gospel,  of  any  evangelical  denomination,  who 
has  been  markedly  successful  in  the  special  work  of  the  Christian 
ministry." 


Copyright,  1883, 

BY 

HENRY    HOLT   &   CO. 


St.   Johnland 
Stereotype  Foundry, 
Suffolk   Co.,  N.  Y. 


PREFATORY    NOTE. 


Numerous  friends  have  asked  to  see  these 
lectures  in  book  form,  otherwise  they  would 
not  have  been  taken  from  the  columns  of 
the  newspaper  for  which  they  were  reported 
when  delivered,  and  in  which  for  nearly  a 
twelvemonth  they  have  lain  undisturbed. 
If  read  in  the  spirit  in  which  they  were 
conceived  and  delivered,  they  will  do  no 
harm  to  any  reader,  and  possibly  some 
preacher  of  the  gospel,  not  yet  unalterably 
fixed  in  his  habits,  may  glean  from  them 
here  and  there  a  hint  that  will  not  be 
wholly  without  use  to  him. 

Brown  University,  Dec,  1882. 


% 


7 


CONTENTS. 


LECTURE 

I.    THE    PLACE    OF    PREACHING    IN    THE     ECONOMY   OF 

CHRISTIANITY I 

II.    CONNECTION    OF    PREACHING   WITH    THE    PROGRESS 

OF    CHRISTIAN    NATIONS 29 

III.    RELATION    OF    PREACHING    TO    FREE    INSTITUTIONS      54 
IV.    THE    WEAKENED    INFLUENCE    OF   THE    PULPIT   AND 

ITS    CAUSES 79 

V.    SPECIAL    REQUIREMENTS  IN  THE  PREACHER  OF  OUR 

TIME 107 

VL    SERMON-MAKING 134 

Vn.    KINDS    OF   SERMONS 162 

VIII.    METHODS  OF  DELIVERY — EXTEMPORANEOUS  PREACH- 
ING   188 


LECTURES   ON    PREACHING. 


LECTURE   I. 

THE    PLACE    OF    PREACHING    IN    THE    ECONOMY 
OF    CHRISTIANITY. 

It  may  be  taken  for  granted  at  the  outset  of 
these  lectures  that  we  all  are  agreed  as  to  what 
is  meant  by  preaching;  it  is  the  proclamation  and 
enforcement  of  the  distinctive  teachings  of  the 
Christian  Religion.  We  all  accept  it  as  one  of 
the  established  offices  of  Christianity.  As  to  the 
relation  of  this  office  to  other  Christian  offices, 
there  is  room  for  considerable  diversity  of  opinion. 
Christian  communions  equally  devout  and  ear- 
nest, perhaps  I  should  also  say  equally  intelli- 
gent, place  very  different  estimates  upon  the 
value  of  preaching.  It  has  seemed,  therefore,  fit- 
ting, that  the  first  topic  discussed  in  the  present 
course  of  Lectures  should  be,  the  Place  of  Preach- 
ing in  the  Economy  of  Christianity. 

Possibly  we  can  be  led  to  a  better  conception 
of  that  place  if  we  glance  for  a  moment  at  the 
aim  of  the  Christian  Religion.  Manifestly,  its 
aim  is  to  make  God  known  to  men,  to  make  men 
known  to  themselves,  and  by  this  twofold  knowl- 
edge to  bring  them  into  harmony;  to  make  men 
aware  of  their  wants,  their  dangers,  their  duties. 


2  THE    PLACE    OF  PREACHING    IN 

and  so  to  persuade  them  to  a  wise  choice  between 
the  alternatives  of  destiny  that  lie  open  to  them. 
To  accomplish  these  ends,  men  must  be  taught 
and  pleaded  with  till  roused  into  action.  In- 
struction and  persuasion  are  the  two  chief  ele- 
ments in  all  true  preaching. 

But  the  purpose  of  our  holy  religion,  and  the 
dependence  of  this  purpose  on  preaching  as  a 
means  for  its  fulfilment,  appears  as  nowhere  else 
in  the  life  and  teachings  and  death  of  Him  who 
gave  to  our  religion  its  name,  its  principles,  its 
spirit,  and  its  methods.  Christ  was  in  his  own 
person  all  that  he  requires  men  to  become,  and 
all  that  they  need  to  know  in  order  to  become 
what  he  requires.  He  was  moral  and  religious 
truth  incarnate,  and  to  proclaim  truth  by  word 
and  deed  was  the  one  unvarying  purpose  of  his 
life.  "  He  went  about  all  the  cities  and  villages, 
teaching  in  the  synagogues  and  preaching  the 
good  tidings  of  the  Kingdom."  He  was  distinc- 
tively and  pre-eminently  a  preacher  and  teacher. 
While  yet  on  earth  he  sent  forth  the  seventy  and 
the  twelve  to  proclaim  what  he  had  taught  them. 
Master,  disciples,  and  apostles,  all  alike,  were 
preachers  of  righteousness;  and,  at  the  conclu- 
sion of  his  ministry  on  earth,  as  he  was  about  to 
ascend  on  high,  he  said  to  the  twelve,  "  Go  ye 
into  all  the  world  and  preach  the  gospel  to  every 
creature." 

But  it  was  only  in  the  closing  scenes  of  Christ's 
life  that  the  full  significancy  of  what  he  had  said 
and  done,  and  himself  was,  began  to  appear.  In- 
deed it  was  only  when  his  life  on  earth  had  been 
concluded;  when  he  had  ascended  to  the  throne 


THE   ECONOMY   OF   CHRISTIANITY.  3 

of  his  power  and  his  glory,  and  the  Holy  Spirit 
whom  he  had  promised  had  been  poured  from  on 
high  that  the  whole  scheme  of  Christianity,  the 
vastness  of  its  purpose,  the  fullness  of  its  provi- 
sions, the  inexhaustibleness  of  its  resources,  the 
depth  and  compass  of  its  teachings,  the  inde- 
structibility of  its  power  and  kingdom,  became 
fully  apparent  to  the  Apostles;  it  was  only  when 
the  omniscient  Spirit  had  revealed  it  to  them  that 
they  began  to  comprehend  the  significancy  of 
the  cross  and  of  alTwhich  had  preceded  it, — the 
former  dispensations,  the  long  line  of  prophets, 
the  miraculous  birth  which  introduced  our  Lord 
into  the  world,  and  the  miraculous  resurrection 
and  ascension  which  concluded  his  stay  in  it. 
When  all  these  had  been  made  plain  to  them, 
then  the  place  of  preaching  in  the  economy  of 
Christianity  became  at  once  apparent  and  estab- 
lished. Then  was  it  that  the  preaching  of  Peter 
and  Stephen  and  Paul  and  Barnabas  won  for  the 
gospel  its  first  triumphs.  And  through  all  gen- 
erations, from  the  time  of  the  apostles  till  now,  it 
has  been  by  the  office  of  preaching  that  the  real 
power  of  the  gospel  has  been  perpetuated  among 
men. 

Now,  when  our  Lord  instituted  the  Christian 
ministry,  giving  some  apostles,  some  prophets, 
some  evangelists,  some  pastors  and  teachers, 
and  sending  them  forth  as  heralds  of  the  glad  ti- 
dings of  a  new  kingdom  of  God  on  earth,  he  did 
not  so  much  create  a  new  office  among  men  as 
give  to  an  old  office  a  new  function  and  a  new 
power.  Religious  guides  and  teachers,  priests 
and  prophets,  men  set  apart  to  one  kind  or  an- 


4  THE   PLACE    OF   PREACHING    IN 

other  of  sacred  function,  already  existed  and 
abounded.  They  existed  in  one  kind  or  another 
among  all  nations.  Our  Lord,  recognizing  the 
need  of  them,  adopted  them  in  his  kingdom  and 
prescribed  to  them  their  distinctive  functions  as 
preachers  and  teachers  of  his  religion. 

The  real  origin  of  a  distinct  class  of  religious 
officials  was  in  the  needs  of  mankind;  the  ground 
of  their  existence  is  in  the  constitution  of  human 
nature  and  of  human  society.  The  origin  of  their 
office  was  like  that  of  other  similar  offices  among 
men;  like  that  of  the  so-called  professions  in  all 
civilized  communities. 

Thus  man  has  a  physical  organism  which  is  lia- 
ble to  derangement  and  disease.  Its  laws  are  nu- 
merous and  complicated,  and  not  always  readily 
discerned.  There  is  need  of  a  class  of  men  known 
as  medical  advisers.  The  necessity  for  their  ex- 
istence is  found  in  the  human  organism  and  in  the 
derangements  to  which  it  is  liable. — Man  also  is 
gregarious  and  seeks  the  society  of  his  fellow-men. 
Society  originated  in  the  necessities  of  the  nature 
of  man.  But  self-interest  prompts  man  to  be  re- 
gardless of  the  rights  of  his  fellow-man.  Indi- 
vidual rights  must  be  defined  and  protected  in 
human  society,  by  law;  or  society  cannot'  exist. 
Laws  also  must  be  interpreted  and  enforced.  There 
is  an  inexorable  necessity  in  human  nature  and  in 
human  society  that  there  shall  be  a  class  of  men 
known  as  lawyers. — In  like  manner,  man  is  en- 
dowed with  various  powers  and  faculties  that 
must  be  developed  and  trained  to  the  uses  for 
which  they  have  been  given  him.  He  is  not  born 
into  the  world,  ready-made  and  complete  for  all 


THE    ECONOMY    OF   CHRISTIANITY.  5 

that  awaits  him.  His  endowments  and  capacities 
are  all  in  the  germ  and  must  be  drawn  out  and 
cultivated.  There  must  be  educators — a  distinct 
profession. 

Man  in  like  manner  has  his  moral  constitution. 
Consciousness  tells  him  something  of  the  hidden 
depths  of  his  own  being.  Conscience  reminds  him 
of  obligations,  and  warns  him  against  a  coming 
retribution.  Observation  and  experience  suggest 
invisible  forces  that  are  around  him,  that  lie  be- 
hind and  within  the  visible  universe.  His  heart 
cries  out  for  help  from  above;  he  yearns  for  a 
knowledge  of  the  invisible,  and  for  a  preparation 
for  what  awaits  him  beyond  the  grave.  He  needs 
a  religious  guide.  He  must,  he  will,  have  one. 
His  need  creates  the  supply.  Religious  teachers 
and  guides  always  have  existed  and  always  will 
exist.  They  have  the  ground  of  their  exist- 
ence in  the  inexorable  demands  of  human  nature 
and  of  human  society.  Our  Lord,  recognizing  the 
need  of  them,  not  only  appointed  a  class  of  men 
to  supply  the  need,  but  appointed  them  to  supply 
it  by  the  distinctive  function  of  preaching  his 
truth;  of  giving  to  men  a  knowledge  of  himself 
and  of  what  he  had  accomplished  by  his  life, 
death  ^nd  resurrection,  for  all  who  should  believe 
on  him.  A  long  line  of  prophets  foretold  him 
and  his  work;  a  much  longer  line  of  preachers 
now  prophesy  of  him,  by  repeating  the  story  of 
his  work  as  completed,  in  a  new  and  loftier  sense 
of  the  word  prophecy.  What  the  prophets  began, 
preachers  are  to  carry  forward  to  the  end  of  time. 

But  let  us  not  forget  that  the  office  of  tlie 
Christian  minister  is  not  simply  to  make  known 


6  THE    PLACE    OF  PREACHING    IN 

to  men  the  truths  of  Christianity.  He  is  not 
merely  a  herald  of  good  news.  It  is  an  error  to 
suppose  that  all  preachers  are,  or  were  intended 
to  be,  simply  evangelists;  that  their  sole  busi- 
ness is  to  proclaim  and  reiterate  the  elementary 
truths  of  Christianity.  The  notion  of  too  many 
people  in  our  day  is,  that  the  distinctive  work  of 
the  preacher  is  the  conversion  of  men;  or,  as  the 
language  sometimes  is,  the  salvation  of  sinners. 
This  latter  statement  is  true  in  one  sense  of  the 
word  salvation,  and  false  in  another.  It  is  true 
in  the  sense  of  making  of  man  the  utmost  of 
which  he  is  capable;  it  is  not  true  in  the  sense 
of  merely  bringing  him  to  the  point  of  thinking 
his  sins  forgiven;  in  barely  giving  him  a  hope  of 
escape  from  perdition.  But  the  work  of  the  Chris- 
tian ministry  and  of  all  preaching  is  to  save  him 
in  the  broadest  conceivable  sense,  by  bringing 
out  to  view  in  his  character  the  whole  image  of 
God,  by  building  up  the  entire  person,  by  culti- 
vating every  endowment  of  his  soul,  by  making 
of  him  a  renewed,  completed,  harmoniously  de- 
veloped, symmetrical  man;  and  anything  short 
of  this  is  short  of  the  complete  Christian  idea  of 
salvation.  Apostles,  prophets,  evangelists,  pas- 
tors, and  teachers,  all  alike,  according  to  the 
Apostle  Paul,  were  given  "  for  the  perfecting  of 
the  saints,"  for  bringing  each  one  up  "  into  a  full- 
grown  man,  unto  the  measure  of  the  stature  of 
the  fullness  of  Christ."  They  greatly  err,  there- 
fore, in  our  day  who  take  such  special  pains  to 
decry  the  plain,  plodding,  faithful,  industrious 
pastor,  that  they  may  set  forth  the  usefulness 
and   glory  of  the  peregrinating  evangelist  whose 


THE   ECONOMY   OF   CHRISTIANITY.  7 

aim  is  to  convert,  and  not  to  build  up  and  com- 
plete the  work  of  salvation;  who  can  bring  crowds 
to  regard  themselves  as  Christians,  but  who  must 
either  consign  these  to  the  training  and  care  of 
instructive  pastors,  or  leave  them  to  the  bewitch- 
ery  and  ruin  of  the  errors  that  beset  them  at  every 
corner. 

He  who  to-day  would  preach  the  gospel 
most  effectively  and  fully  and  widely  must  do 
it  through  his  well-instructed  hearers,  must 
do  it  by  collecting  around  him  a  church,  every 
man  and  woman  of  which  will  be  a  preacher  of 
the  gospel,  and  through  whom  he  can  preach  the 
gospel  to  those  who  may  not  otherwise  hear  it. 
A  gospel  unsupported  by  the  example  of  those 
who  profess  to  have  received  and  obeyed  it  will 
be  powerless,  and  the  preaching  of  it  in  vain. 

The  ordinary  Christian  congregation  at  this 
day  furthermore  is  not  ignorant  of  the  gospel, 
either  of  its  provisions  or  its  requirements.  The 
world  is  not  now  where  it  was  when  Christianity 
was  first  announced  to  it.  The  author  of  the 
Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  reproved  those  to  whom 
he  wrote,  because  they  had  not  advanced  beyond 
"  the  first  principles  of  the  doctrine  of  Christ." 
But  the  thousand  sources  of  modern  religious  in- 
struction have  lifted  up  the  ordinary  Christian  of 
to-day  to  a  level  far  above  that  of  those  to  whom 
the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  was  written.  The 
Christian  assemblies  of  our  time  not  only  know 
the  first  principles  of  Christianity,  they  understand 
its  weighter  doctrines;  it  is  not  so  much  knowl- 
edge that  they  need  as  it  is  persuasion  to  make  a 
right  use  of  the  knowledge  they  possess.     The 


8  THE   PLACE    OF  PREACHING   IN 

largest  part  of  the  duty  of  the  Christian  minister 
and  pastor  now  is,  not  to  reiterate  what  is  already 
known,  but  to  enforce  duty  and  build  up  charac- 
ter. Alas,  that  the  pulpit  so  often  forgets  that 
the  aim  of  Christianity  is  not  simply  to  rescue 
men  from  final  damnation,  but  to  bring  every  man 
and  woman  into  the  realization  of  the  highest 
ideal  being;  a  realization  into  which  they  can 
be  brought  only  through  constant  and  unyield- 
ing compliance  with  every  moral  and  religious 
obligation. 

But  here  we  must  remember  that  as  Christianity 
exists  in  our  day  under  a  diversity  of  denomina- 
tional names,  so  we  must  expect  to  find  diversity 
of  estimates  as  to  the  relation  of  preaching  to  the 
other  offices  of  our  religion.  To  this  diversity  of 
estimate,  it  is  necessary  at  this  point  to  give 
passing  attention.  All  who  accept  the  New  Tes- 
tament as  of  divine  authority  agree  in  regarding 
the  cross  of  Christ  as  the  point  of  departure, 
whether  in  teaching  Christianity  to  the  ignorant, 
or  in  aiming  at  solidity  and  symmetry  of  charac- 
ter in  those  who  already  believe.  They  recognize 
the  truth  that  it  is  "Christ  and  him  crucified" 
that  must  be  proclaimed;  but  there  is  diversity 
of  view  as  to  the  method  by  which  the  proclama- 
tion should  be  made. 

One  large  division  of  Christendom  insists  that 
in  all  public  worship,  and  so  in  all  public  procla- 
mation of  the  gospel,  the  sacrifice  offered  on  the 
cross  shall,  by  some  means,  be  always  represented 
to  the  eyes  of  men.  Hence  the  use  of  crosses 
and  crucifixes,  of  cruciform  architecture,  of  sym- 
bolic vestments   and   incense.     Hence,   too,  the 


THE    ECONOMY    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  9 

central  point  of  worship  is  made  to  be  the  mass, 
a  reproduction  through  priestly  consecration  of 
the  bread  and  wine,  of  the  personal  sacrifice  of 
Christ.  Treaching  is  made  subordinate,  inciden- 
tal and  occasional.  The  altar  overshadows  the 
pulpit. 

Another  part  of  the  Christian  world  insists 
that  the  sacrificial  work  of  Christ  shall  be  repre- 
sented in  worship,  not  by  the  mass,  but  by 
prayer  and  praise  and  Scripture-reading.  Preach- 
ing with  these  is  also  subordinate,  and  forms  a 
minor  part  of  public  religious  services.  The 
eucharist  may  or  may  not,  as  conscience  dic- 
tates, be  made  an  essential  part  of  the  service. 

A  third  class  makes  all  turn,  in  public  worship, 
on  the  distinctive  function  of  preaching.  Re- 
jecting wholly  the  idea  of  the  mass,  and  making 
of  the  communion  of  the  Lord's  Supper  only  a 
monthly  ordinance  for  believers,  they  concen- 
trate attention  on  the  sermon.  To  it,  all  Scrip- 
ture-reading and  prayer  and  praise  are  made 
subordinate  and  subservient. 

By  the  first  of  these  great  divisions,  the  pre- 
dominant conception  of  public  worship  is  that 
it  should  be  propitiatory;  by  the  second,  that  it 
should  be  educational;  by  the  third  that  it  should 
be  persuasive.  The  central  point  with  the  first 
is  "the"  sacrament  or  the  mass;  with  the  second, 
the  liturgy  or  prayer  book;  with  the  third,  the 
sermon. 

You  will  see  these  three  types  of  religious  faith 
represented  in  any  Saturday  newspaper  that  an- 
nounces the  coming  Sunday  services.  One  of 
the  advertisements  says  that  "  mass  will  be  eel- 


10  THE   PLACE    OF  PREACHING   IN 

ebrated"  at  such  an  hour;  another,  that  "there 
will  be  morning  and  evening  prayer;"  another,  that 
"  Mr.  So-and-so  will  preach."  Each  advertise- 
ment sets  forth  what  the  adherents  of  each  type 
regard  as  the  distinctive  part  of  public  worship 
and  the  most  effective  method  of  proclaiming  the 
religion  of  the  crucified  Jesus.  The  types,  as  thus 
represented,  are,  of  course,  as  all  types  must  be, 
general  and,  in  some  sense,  extreme;  but  they 
are  none  the  less  real  and  clearly  marked. 
Neither  of  the  first  two  omits  preaching  wholly, 
though  making  no  mention  of  it;  but  their  atten- 
tion to  it  is  secondary  and  incidental.  The  first 
resorts  to  preaching  only  on  special  occasions; 
the  second  lays  so  much  stress  upon  the  liturgy 
that  the  sermon  fails  to  get  mentioned;  the 
third  makes  so  much  of  the  sermon  that  it  for- 
gets to  mention  anything  else. 

Adherents  of  the  first  type  may  say  that  the 
gospel  is  preached  by  architecture,  by  statues 
and  paintings,  by  crosses  and  crucifixes,  by  al- 
tars and  altar-lights,  by  music,  by  priestly  vest- 
ments and  incense.  All  these,  it  is  said,  preach 
symbolically.  But,  it  is  a  universal  law  of  hu- 
man nature,  a  law  from  which  even  the  educated 
do  not  always  escape,  and  which  always  controls 
the  ignorant,  that  in  due  process  of  time,  the 
symbol  takes  the  place  of  what  is  symbolized; 
the  form  absorbs  the  essence;  the  letter  kills  the 
spirit;  religion  becomes  a  thing  of  forms;  and 
worshipers,  however  earnest  or  devout,  sink  in- 
evitably into  a  species  of  idolatry. 

Nor  can  liturgical  repetitions,  abound  as  the 
liturgy  may  in  Christian  sentiments  and  in  Scrip- 


THE   ECONOMY   OF   CHRISTIANITY.  11 

tural  language,  ever  take  the  place  of  preaching. 
No  one  will  pretend  that  they  can.  And  they 
cannot  be  in  the  true  sense  educational,  except 
as  they  precede,  or  are  preceded  by  intelligent 
preaching.  The  commandments  need  exposition 
and  enforcement;  and  the  gospel  in  its  compass, 
methods,  and  requirements,  needs  to  be  pressed 
on  the  conscience,  if  worship  is  to  bring  to  the 
worshiper  its  expected  elevation  and  refinement 
of  soul,  its  intended  discipline  of  mind  and  heart. 

Here  then  may  we  not  catch  a  glimpse  of  the 
true  place  of  preaching }  Surely  it  is  out  of  its 
true  place  when  relied  on  as  a  substitute  for  the 
convincing  and  persuasive  power  of  character. 
Indeed  preaching  unsupported  by  character  in 
the  preacher  is  a  mockery  of  truth  and  an  offence 
to  God  and  man.  It  is  also  out  of  its  place  when 
made  to  over-ride  and  exclude  all  ritual;  it  is  not 
in  its  true  place  when  prayer  and  praise  and 
Scripture  reading  are  slurred  over  to  make  room 
for  and  give  prominence  to  it.  Not  a  whit  more 
is  its  true  place  assigned  it,  when  an  expanded 
ritual  crowds  it  into  a  space  too  narrow  for  its 
own  movement  or  for  any  enlightened  persuasion 
in  those  who  hear  it.  But  to  show  still  more 
clearly  where  preaching  belongs  in  the  Christian 
economy,  let  us  look  for  a  moment  at  some  of  the 
more  immediate  evidences  of  our  need  of  the  liv- 
ing Christian  preacher. 

We  need  him  first,  because  there  is  a  persua- 
siveness in  a  personal  presence  and  voice  that 
never  exists  in  any  symbolical  act  or  thing,  or  in 
any  liturgy  or  literature,  even  that  of  the  Bible. 
The  preacher  teaches  not  only  through  the  eye, 


12  THE    PLACE    OF  PREACHING    IN 

as  do  symbols  and  liturgy  and  literature,  but  also 
through  the  ear.  Through  eye  and  ear,  unnum- 
bered subtile  influences  flow  in  upon  the  soul,  and 
touch  the  heart  of  the  hearer.  Tones  of  voice, 
expression  of  countenance,  gleam  of  the  eye, 
sympathy  with  surrounding  auditors,  all  conspire 
to  bring  us  under  the  sway  of  the  speaker's 
thought,  to  lift  us  out  of  ourselves,  and  to  bring 
us  into  harmony  and  communion  with  him  whom 
we  call  Saviour  and  Lord. 

It  is,  I  know,  quite  the  fashion  in  our  day  to 
decry  the  pulpit,  and  to  laud  literature;  to  place 
the  preacher  not  only  in  disparaging  comparison, 
but  in  sharp  antagonising  contrast  with  the  writer. 
Thomas  Carlyle,  perhaps  more  than  any  other 
writer  of  the  generation  now  ending,  distinguished 
himself  by  his  disparagement  of  speaking,  and 
his  laudation  of  writing.  And,  singularly  enough, 
one  of  his  most  sweeping  diatribes  against  speech 
was  in  his  public  lectures  on  "  Heroes  and  Hero 
Worship."  According  to  Carlyle,  the  primate  of 
all  England  at  any  given  period  is  not  the  Arch- 
bishop of  Canterbury,  but  England's  foremost 
writer,  whoever  he  may  chance  to  be.  It  is  not 
tongues,  but  pens,  that  reach  the  heart  of  the  na- 
tion and  shape  its  course.  It  is  not  Parliament, 
but  the  true  literary  guild,  that  really  makes  laws, 
and  determines  policies,  domestic  and  foreign. 
Speech  is  brazen  and  silence  always  golden.  "  The 
true  university,"  Carlyle  tells  us,  "is  a  collection 
of  books."  But  what  is  a  collection  of  books 
without  living  men  to  interpret,  and  to  induce  us 
to  read  them.  What  is  a  book,  unless  your  im- 
agination shall  bring  you  into  some  kind  of  rela- 


THE    ECONOMY   OF   CHRISTIANITY.  13 

tion  to  the  once  living  personality  of  its  author.  An 
excellent  book  is  next  in  value  to  the  companion- 
ship of  an  excellent  man;  but  there  is  something 
.in  a  living  man  which  no  book  can  ever  supply. 
Figure  to  yourself  the  blind  old  bard  repeating 
his  Iliad  or  his  Odyssey,  and  imagine  the  differ- 
ence between  hearing  the  tones  as  they  should  fall 
from  his  lips,  and  the  vain  attempt  to  imagine 
them  as  you  pick  up  the  words  with  your  eyes 
from  the  printed  page.  Think  of  the  difference 
between  reading  one  of  Paul's  Epistles,  and  hear- 
ing him  pour  out  its  contents  in  animated  dis- 
course. We  are  sometimes  told  that  it  is  not 
Parliament,  but  the  London  Times,  that  to-day 
rules  England;  but  was  it  the  Times,  or  the 
speeches  of  Mr.  Gladstone  and  his  co-adjutors, 
that  restored  the  Liberal  party  to  power .''  It  has 
been  said  that  it  is  not  our  national  Congress,  but 
the  newspapers,  that  rule  our  own  country;  that 
it  is  not  our  Legislatures  that  really  make  our 
laws,  but  the  writers,  who  control  the  thinking 
and  the  voting  of  our  legislators;  but  is  there  ever 
a  general  election  in  this  country  in  which  either 
party  is  willing  to  rely  wholly  on  the  press,  and 
does  not  send  forth  its  stump-speakers  .-*  What 
party  dares  go  to  the  polls  before  it  has  sent  forth 
its  living  appeals  to  the  electors  .-*  The  press 
cannot  be  spared;  neither  can  speech  be  dis- 
pensed with.  In  like  manner,  our  holy  religion 
needs  its 

Doctores,  calamo,  nee  minus  ore,  graves. 

Let  us  proceed  then,   to  notice  some  of  the 
grounds  of  the  need  of  the  living  preacher.     He 


14  THE   PLACE    OF  PREACHING   IN 

is  needed,  first,  to  provide  for  the  progressive 
understanding  of  Christian  truth.  All  revealed 
truth  from  the  beginning  was  progressively  an- 
nounced; and  the  announcements  have  become 
progressively  intelligible.  The  question  is  some- 
times asked,  Why,  in  the  names  of  justice  and 
of  mercy,  if  Christianity  is,  as  is  claimed,  a 
religion  of  Divine  origin,  it  was  not  given  to 
the  race  ages  before  it  was.-*  The  answer  is 
simple.  It  was  given  to  the  race  just  as  quickly 
as  it  could  be,  just  as  rapidly  as  the  race  was 
prepared  to  receive  and  understand  it.  It  could 
not  have  been  given  a  generation  earlier.  And 
the  delay  was  not  alone  that  there  might  be  a 
preparation  of  a  special  language,  that  should 
serve  as  a  vehicle  of  its  thoughts,  but  for  the 
simple  reason  that  thought  can  be  given  to  any 
people,  or  to  any  generation  of  a  people,  only 
just  as  fast  as  they  can  become  prepared  for 
an  intelligent  use  of  the  necessary  symbols  of 
thought.  Go  back,  if  you  will,  to  the  promise 
given  to  Abraham.  Sometimes,  a  modern  preacher 
will  depict  Abraham  as  having  received,  through 
the  promise  given  him,  as  clear  a  conception 
of  Christ  and  Christianity,  as  is  possessed  by 
a  Christian  of  the  present  day.  How  groundless 
is  all  this  is  evident  from  the  promise  itself,  to 
say  nothing  of  the  age  in  which  it  was  given. 
Abraham  had  his  conceptions  which  served 
their  purpose,  and  which  in  due  time  gave 
place,  through  oral  teaching,  to  others  under 
the  Mosaic  dispensation. 

Pass  from  Moses  to  the  prophets.     The  Mosaic 
Institutes  seemed  to  be  established  with  the  fix- 


THE    ECONOMY   OF   CHRISTIANITY.  15 

edness  of  unchangeable  statutes.  But  the  proph- 
ets, those  earlier  preachers,  analyzed  and  brought 
out  of  the  Institutes  of  Moses  a  depth  and  reach 
of  meaning  of  which  Moses  was  ignorant.  If 
we  pass  on  still  further  to  the  teachings  of 
Jesus  of  Nazareth,  we  find  him  not  only  ex- 
pounding Moses,  but  unfolding  the  prophecies, 
and  giving  to  all  a  compass  and  fullness  of 
meaning  of  which  the  prophets  were  unaware. 
So  entirely  beyond  the  mere  letter  of  Moses 
and  the  Prophets  were  the  interpretations  of 
Jesus,  that  his  contemporaries  charged  him  with 
destroying  them.  Moses  and  the  Prophets  had 
served  their  purpose,  and  the  preaching  of  Jesus 
introduced  purer  and  profounder  and  more  ex- 
alted conceptions  of  God  and  his  service.  And 
so,  down  the  lengthening  centuries.  Christian 
preachers,  through  ever-changing  types  of  Chris- 
tian thinking  and  of  Christian  worship  and  of 
Christian  living,  have  brought  Christianity  to 
its  present  position  and  power  in  the  world:  a 
position  and  power  never  equalled  in  all  the 
past.  So  that  we  need  not  be  startled  at  the 
statement  that  the  teachings  of  our  holy  religion 
are  better  understood  to-day  than  they  ever  were 
before;  that  the  subtle  spirit  of  Christianity  strikes 
deeper  into  the  heart  of  human  society,  and  more 
effectively  controls  the  policy,  and  the  jurispru- 
dence, and  the  inner  life  of  nations,  than  it  has 
ever  done  in  any  of  the  preceding  centuries. 

And  how  has  all  this  been  accomplished  .-' 
Simply  by  taking  the  people  through  successive 
transitions  from  lower  to  higher  levels  of  Chris- 
tian  thought  and  actions;   by  raising  each  sue- 


16  THE    PLACE    OF  PREACHING    IN 

ceeding  generation  to  a  higher  plane  than  that  of 
the  preceding.  All  Christian  thought  embodies 
itself  in  certain  formulas  of  belief.  Many  of  these 
are  founded  on  theories  of  the  divine  method  of 
action.  A  theory,  possibly  suggested  at  first  by 
a  reigning  philosophy,  may  do  admirable  service 
in  its  day.  But  its  day  comes  to  an  end.  An- 
other, becoming  necessary,  takes  its  place.  Let 
any  one  attempt  to  preach  the  gospel  to-day  in 
the  formulas  and  modes  of  conception  prevailing 
in  the  fifth,  or  in  the  tenth,  or  in  the  thirteenth 
centuries.  Let  any  one  now  try  to  conceive  and 
represent  the  atoning  efficacy  of  Christ's  death  as 
it  was  presented  in  either  of  those  centuries;  or 
let  any  one  try  to  preach  the  gospel  to-day  pre- 
cisely as  it  was  preached  by  the  reformers  in  the 
sixteenth  century;  and  he  will  see  that  we  stand 
on  another  level  than  theirs.  Or  go  no  further 
back  than  a  century  and  a  half;  the  change  that 
has  taken  place  even  within  this  period  becomes 
at  once  apparent.  Each  generation,  if  its  relig- 
ion is  to  be  vital  and  controlling,  must  have  its 
own  modes  of  conception  and  statement;  and  ev- 
ery individual  preacher,  if  his  preaching  is  to  be 
effective,  must  have  thoughts  of  his  own  and  ex- 
press them  in  language  that  shall  be  distended 
with  meaning.  When  Moses  Stuart,  as  a  young 
pastor  in  this  city  in  1808,  preached  his  noted  ser- 
mons on  the  Atonement,  he  felt  that  the  prevail- 
ing statements  of  that  doctrine  failed  to  convey 
what  he  regarded  as  the  true  teaching  of  the 
Scriptures.  So  still,  in  our  own  time,  preachers 
of  the  gospel,  with  the  New  Testament  in  their 
hands,  may  accept  neither  the  formulas  of  the  fifth 


THE    ECONOMY   OF   CHRISTIANITY.  17 

nor  of  the  fifteenth  centuries,  nor  yet  of  any  later 
theorists,  but  may  formulate  for  themselves  out 
of  the  words  of  the  Master  and  his  Apostles  what 
in  their  innermost  hearts  they  believe  these  to 
have  taught;  discarding  all  theory  and  tradition- 
al dogma,  they  may  emphasize  only  the  necessity 
of  a  living  personal  faith  in  the  crucified  and  risen 
personal  Christ. 

But  here  we  may  be  told  that  all  the  great 
transitional  changes  in  doctrinal  thinking  and  in 
,  consequent  Christian  living,  have  their  origin  in 
the  closets  of  recluse  thinkers,  and  not  in  the 
studies  and  sermons  of  preachers.  True  indeed 
is  it  that  great  thinkers  and  great  epochs  always 
make  their  appearance  together.  But  great  think- 
ers are  quite  as  much  the  product  as  the  pro- 
ducers of  great  epochs.  The  epochs  originate  in  a 
thousand  invisible  influences  which  unite  and  break 
forth  through  some  living  soul  only  when  the  su- 
preme moment  arrives;  just  as  innumerable  drops 
from  the  heavens  falling  upon  the  earth  and  dis- 
appearing, are  gathered  into  channels  beneath 
layers  of  solid  rocks,  till,  accumulating  sufficient 
headway,  they  burst  forth,  carrying  verdure  and 
fruitage  and  beauty,  whithersoever  they  are  borne. 
But  it  is  the  teacher  of  the  people,  who,  standing 
between  the  great  thinker  and  the  rest  of  man- 
kind, becomes  the  medium  through  whom  the 
new  thoughts  reach  and  affect  them.  It  is  the 
preacher  by  whom  changes  in  types  of  belief  and 
of  worship  and  of  conduct  in  the  great  body  of 
the  church  are  finally  effected. 

The  order  of  these  transitions,  the  succession 
of  the  epochs,  is  not  always  in  a  direct  and  con- 


18  THE   PLACE    OF  PREACHING   IN 

tinuous  line.  Sometimes  it  has  been  only  by  a 
circuitous  and  almost  revolving  course  that  greaf 
advances  have  been  made.  Many  curious  in- 
stances of  these  circuitous  movements  have  been 
presented  in  the  history  of  the  church. 

I  am  reminded,  just  at  this  point,  that  about 
the  year  1745,  there  was  a  class  of  men  in  New 
England  and  New  Jersey,  who  were  well  known 
and  unapproved  by  the  authorities  of  this  College. 
They  were  known  as  New  Lights.  Their  methods 
and  views  differed  widely  from  what  was  regarded 
as  orthodox,  by  the  authorities  here.  When  the 
College  in  New  Jersey  was  chartered  in  1746,  the 
New  Lights  rallied  to  its  support.  Two  of  their 
most  remarkable  men  were  among  its  early  Presi- 
dents. Princeton,  in  the  estimation  of  Yale,  was 
then  heterodox.  But,  in  the  whirl  of  time,  how  all 
this  has  changed.  At  the  College  of  New  Jersey, 
the  Cocceian  theory  of  covenants  which  Turretin 
and  Heidegger  and  Witsius  had  wrought  into  a  sys- 
tem of  covenanted  imputation,  was  adopted  by  the 
successors  of  the  New  Lights,  and  Princeton  The- 
ology became  one  of  the  established  systems  of 
the  general  Theology  of  America.  It  has  claimed 
for  itself  the  exclusive  title  of  orthodox.  On  the 
other  hand,  at  the  College  in  New  Haven,  a  noted 
teacher  of  Theology,  some  three  quarters  of  a  cen- 
tury later,  building  on  a  basis  traceable  directly 
to  the  most  distinguished  of  the  New  Lights, 
Jonathan  Edwards,  the  third  President  of  the 
College  of  New  Jersey,  particularly  to  his  dis- 
sertation On  the  Nature  of  true  Virtue,  was 
stigmatized  by  Princeton  as  a  teacher  of  heret- 
ical doctrines.     Drs.   Alexander  and   Hodge,  at 


THE   ECONOMY   OF   CHRISTIANITY.  19 

Princeton,  holding  rigidly  to  their  theories  of 
imputation  and  limited  atonement,  preached  the 
gospel  to  their  contemporaries  with  noteworthy- 
power;  and  all  the  world  has  heard  how,  at  the 
same  period,  Dr.  Nathaniel  W.  Taylor  at  New 
Haven,  having  worked  his  way  out  into  a  very 
different  conception  of  human  ability  and  freedom 
of  will,  preached  the  same  gospel  with  wonderful 
acceptance  and  effect. 

And  in  like  manner  ought  every  preacher  of 
the  gospel  to  do  his  utmost  to  give  his  generation 
an  ever  deepening  insight  into  Christianity,  and 
to  bring  it  more  completely  under  its  sway.  And 
how  many  and  formidable  are  the  difficulties 
encountered  by  the  minister  of  religion  in  our 
day !  Young  preachers,  finding  their  hearers 
unmoved  by  traditional  phraseology,  and  them- 
selves incapable  of  filling  it  with  meaning,  are 
in  danger  of  losing  confidence  in  the  power  of 
the  gospel.  Never  was  there  an  age  when  the 
young  preacher  should  be  so  intensely  anxious 
to  know,  through  a  vital  experience  of  it,  just 
what  the  power  of  the  gospel  really  is,  and  just 
what  Christianity  can  actually  accomplish  for 
man.  Only  by  the  aid  of  such  experience  can 
he  guide  this  questioning,  doubting,  disbelieving 
generation  into  some  clear  conception  of  the 
indestructibility  of  the  gospel  and  both  appre- 
hend for  himself  and  make  clear  to  others  its 
power  to  reach  and  lift  up  the  lowest  of  mankind, 
as  well  as  to  hold  in  its  grasp  and  guide  into  rest 
the  strongest  of  its  intellects.  The  world  waits 
and  yearns  and  struggles  for  a  stronger  faith  and 
a  purer  Christianity  than  it  yet  possesses. 


20  THE    PLACE    OF  PREACHING    IN 

The  living  preacher  is  needed  to  build  up 
Christian  character.  Growth  of  character  is  by- 
taking  on  and  throwing  off.  Growth  of  Christian 
character  is  very  much  like  that  of  the  bodily 
system.  It  never  becomes  fixed  and  unchangeable. 
That  Christian  man,  whose  character  has  ceased 
to  improve,  is  like  the  tree  that  has  ceased  to 
grow;  he  has  already  begun  to  decay.  Nor 
can  mere  verbal  orthodoxy  save  him.  Endless 
iteration  of  unmeaning  phraseology  is  always 
fatal  to  the  Christian  life.  One  must  constantly 
penetrate  more  and  more  deeply  into  Christian 
thought  and  into  the  Christian  life  which  the 
thought  implies;  else,  instead  of  growth,  there  will 
be  feebleness  and  decline.  Every  Christian,  in 
whom  there  is  real  growth,  is  taking  on  new 
thoughts  and  finding  new  meanings  in  old  ones, 
just  as  the  Apostle  said:  "When  I  was  a  child, 
I  spake  as  a  child,  I  understood  as  a  child,  I 
thought  as  a  child;  but  now  that  I  have  become 
a  man,  I  have  put  away  childish  things."  We 
all  have  been  children  in  Christian  knowledge. 
There  have  been  modes  of  conception  and  states 
of  feeling  many  of  which  we  have  outgrown;  but 
we  have  not  outgrown,  we  never  can  outgrow, 
the  divine  life  of  our  holy  religion.  That  life, 
properly  nurtured,  will  gather  strength  with  every 
successive  change.  In  fact,  proper  nurture  will 
impel  it  ever  onward  and  upward  into  higher 
thought  and  action.  Spiritual  life,  like  the  soul, 
is  ever  taking  to  itself  a  new  body.  Every  new 
experience  lets  the  Christian  deeper  into  the 
heart  of  Christianity,  and  imparts  to  him  more 
of  the  true  spiritual  life.     Old  things  are  continu- 


THE    ECONOMY   OF   CHRISTIANITY.  21 

ally  passing  away,  and  all  things  are  ever  becoming 
new.  "  Even  though  we  have  known  Christ  after 
the  flesh,  yet  now  we  know  him  so  no  more." 
The  risen  Lord  is  ever  raising  us  nearer  to 
himself. 

But  to  make  a  safe  and  healthy  progress,  to 
give  to  the  average  Christian  a  continuous  and 
symmetrical  growth  of  character,  there  is  needed 
the  intelligent  pastor  with  his  regular  Sunday 
discourses — discourses  prepared  with  special  re- 
ference to  the  wants  of  his  hearers.  To  have  a 
healthy  ^nd  progressive  religious  life,  one  must 
have  wholesome  religious  instruction;  his  mind 
must  be  occupied  with  sound  religious  thought. 
He  who  begins  to  decay  at  the  top,  whose  relig- 
ious thinking  has  become  feeble  and  sickly,  will 
find  in  due  time  that  religious  decay  is  reaching 
his  heart,  and  his  religion  is  dying  out.  To  save 
from  this  and  to  insure  a  vigorous  spiritual  life 
and  thus  a  healthy  Christian  character,  the 
Christian  pastor,  the  faithful  preacher,  is  indis- 
pensable. 

Preaching  is  needed  for  another  reason;  that 
Christianity  may  be  kept  abreast  of  the  race  in 
its  progress.  Dispute  as  we  may  about  it,  civil- 
ization, unhindered  by  outward  influences,  is 
always  advancing;  it  is  never  stationary.  It  is 
now  advancing  at  an  incomparably  more  rapid 
rate  than  ever  before.  In  fifty  years  now,  the 
race  moves  faster  than  it  did  in  six  times  fifty, 
ten  centuries  ago.  Science  now  sweeps  the  race 
along  with  astounding  rapidity.  It  is  bringing 
the  nations  of  the  earth  into  a  daily  interchange 
of  thought;  it  threatens  to  make  all  things  new 


22  THE    PLACE    OF  PREACHING   IN 

in  both  our  civilization  and  our  religion.  Not 
only  unlettered  minds,  but  some  that  think 
themselves  cultured,  catching  here  and  there 
a  flying  paragraph,  get  an  impression  that  our 
Christian  religion  has  had  its  day;  that  there 
must  be  some  truth  in  the  confident  proclama- 
tion that  the  gospel  which  is  hereafter  to  rule 
will  not  be  the  gospel  of  faith,  but  the  gospel 
of  science. 

How  now  shall  Christianity  in  its  offices  for 
man  be  kept  abreast  of  the  race  in  its  onward 
movement  .-•  Certainly  not  by  abandoning  either 
the  Divine  authority  or  the  Divine  origin  of  the 
Christian  religion.  The  historical  facts  of  the  be- 
ginning of  Christianity  can  never  be  changed. 
The  spirit  of  the  gospel  and  the  nature  of  the 
Christian  life  are,  doubtless,  the  same  now  that 
they  ever  were  and  that  they  always  will  be. 
But  the  outward  forms  in  which  the  spirit  of  the 
gospel  and  the  Christian  life  have  manifested 
themselves,  have  changed  with  the  changing 
centuries;  and  the  changes  have  occurred,  not 
through  the  surrender  of  anything  essential,  but 
by  appropriation  of  new  methods  and  conditions, 
supplied  by  advancing  civilization.  In  vain  is 
it,  that  we  attempt  to  preach  the  gospel  to  one 
generation  by  sermons  that  may  have  served 
well  for  another.  There  may  be  remote  districts 
inhabited  by  Christian  pagani,  who  do  not  know 
that  the  world  has  run  away  from  them.  They 
are  the  religious  and  social  relics  of  a  past  cen- 
tury. But,  to  the  busy  and  on-rushing  people 
of  this  generation,  the  gospel  must  be  so  preached 
as  to  reach   and   cont'-ol  them  in  their  hidden 


THE    ECONOMY    OF   CJIKISTIANITY.  23 

springs  of  action;  yielding  not  one  iota  of  its 
original  demands,  nor  changing  in  the  minutest 
particular  its  original  method  of  saving  men,  it 
yet  should  be  so  preached  as  to  exorcise  or 
sanctify  the  ruling  spirit  of  a  false  civilization. 

It  is  sometimes  said,  I  know,  that  the  preaching 
of  our  own  time  is  inferior  to  that  of  other  days. 
But  to  go  no  further  back,  suppose  you  try  a 
sermon  of  one  of  the  reformers,  of  Luther  or  of 
Calvin,  on  a  modern  congregation.  What  would 
be  the  effect }  It  has  been  affirmed  that  the 
sermons  of  Jonathan  Edwards  would  be  more 
effective  with  a  modern  assembly  than  are  ser- 
mons of  the  type  now  prevailing.  Would  any 
one  of  you,  young  gentlemen,  be  willing  to  at- 
tempt the  experiment  of  preaching  one  of  them  .-• 
The  truth  is,  each  age  must  have  its  own  type. 
No  one  can  make  the  past  do  the  work  of  the 
present;  the  present  cannot  do  the  work  of  the 
future.  The  gospel,  to  do  its  work,  must  take  so- 
ciety at  the  level  where  it  finds  it;  must  address 
it  in  language  it  can  understand,  plying  it  with 
motives  it  can  appreciate,  and  penetrating  to 
the  heart  of  it  through  every  open  avenue.  It 
must  deal  with  the  motives  of  men,  with  the 
morals  of  society  and  of  private  life,  and  with  the 
duties  of  citizens,  and  of  the  state.  It  is  idle  and 
worse  than  useless  to  go  on  twanging  the  strings 
on  which  the  reformers  of  the  sixteenth  century 
played  their  tunes,  or  to  continue  clamoring  about 
issues  which  two  hundred  years  ago  were  living, 
but  which  long  since  died,  and  to-day  ought  to 
be  forgotten. 

And  equally  idle  is  it  for  the  pulpit  now  to  in- 


24  THE    PLACE    OF  PREACHING    IN 

sist  on  habits  of  life  to  which  Christians  of  an 
earlier  time  may  have  felt  themselves  conscien- 
tiously bound.  In  vain  would  one  now  assail  the 
musical  instruments  of  the  home  or  of  the  house 
of  worship,  once  so  abhorrent  to  the  devout;  or 
the  recreations  and  amusements  which  our  Pu- 
ritan fathers  so  bitterly  denounced.  But  this 
generation  needs,  none  ever  more  needed,  the 
intelligent  pastor  and  preacher  who,  with  watch- 
ful eyes,  with  a  well-digested  knowledge  of  both 
the  past  and  the  present,  with  unswerving  loyalty 
of  heart  to  Christ,  and  with  the  charity  that  "  never 
faileth,"  shall  guard  and  guide  amid  the  thicken- 
ing perils  that  surround  us. 

I  will  name  but  one  other  reason  for  our  need 
of  the  living  preacher;  it  is  that  he  may  be  a 
vehicle  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  We  believe  in  the 
personal  Holy  Ghost.  We  recognize  the  truth 
that  without  his  aid  our  preaching  will  be  in  vain; 
and  we  also  recognize  that  it  is  in  and  through 
the  use  of  Divine  truth  that  the  presence  and 
power  of  the  Spirit  are  made  manifest. 

Now  there  are  two  or  three  mischievous  errors 
in  our  time  of  which  we  are  at  this  point  reminded. 
The  one  is  a  vague  notion  that  the  Holy  Spirit  is 
somehow  or  other  inherent  in  Biblical  truth;  that 
it  reposes  in  the  Bible,  particularly  in  the  New 
Testament,  as  a  kind  of  latent  energy  that  can 
be  elicited  and  applied.  Something  like  this  seems 
to  have  been  the  view  of  Dr.  Thomas  W.  Jenkyn 
in  his  once  popular  book,  "  The  Union  of  the  Holy 
Spirit  and  the  Church,"  and  of  Alexander  Campbell, 
the  founder  of  the  sect  of  the  Campbellites  or  the  so- 
called  Disciples.     What  these  authors  have  more 


THE    ECONOMY    OF   CHRISTIANITY.  25 

or  less  explicitly  affirmed  others  have  implicitly 
though  perhaps  unconsciously  held  in  their  doc- 
trines concerning  the  efficiency  of  divine  truth. 
They  forget  that  the  Holy  Spirit  dwells  on  earth 
only  in  human  personalities,  and  associates  itself 
only  with  human  spirits.  "  The  Spirit  shall  guide 
yoii  into  all  truth"  and  "Receive  ye  the  Holy 
Ghost,"  said  Christ.  And  of  the  day  of  Pentecost 
it  is  said,  "they"  (that  is,  the  disciples,  and  not 
their  words)  "were  all  filled  with  the  Holy  Ghost." 

Another  and  still  more  mischievous  error  is 
that  which  supposes  the  Christian  minister  to  be  a 
mere  functionary,  and  the  function  which  he  per- 
forms to  be  dependent  for  its  efficacy  on  the  na- 
ture of  his  office  rather  than  on  the  character  of 
himself  as  its  occupant;  which  regards  him  as  an 
official,  and  the  efficacy  of  his  offices  as  lying  in 
the  thing  done  rather  than  in  him  who  does  it;  and 
which  regards  as  the  highest  and  most  efficacious 
of  his  offices  the  administration  of  the  Sacraments. 
This  is  sacerdotalism,  and  supposes  that  the 
Holy  Spirit  accompanies  the  sacraments  rather 
than  dwells  in  the  man.  He  may  be  utterly  in- 
different in  spirit  and  even  dishonest  at  heart; 
but  he  has  been  ordained  a  priest  and  thus  di- 
vinely commissioned;  and  the  divine  commission 
insures  the  divine  presence  and  power  in  the  func- 
tion which  he  performs.  This  sinks  the  prophet 
or  preacher  in  the  priest  and  whatever  else  it 
may  be  is  not  in  accordance  with  the  Christian- 
ity of  the  New  Testament. 

Another  error,  less  mischievous  perhaps  but 
far  more  common  than  those  just  mentioned,  is 
the  notion  that  the  home  of  the  Spirit  is  some- 


26  THE    PLACE    OF  PREACHING    IN 

how  in  the  heavens,  and  that  he  comes  to  us  only 
in  answer  to  prayer.  Hence  you  will  not  un- 
frequently  hear  people,  both  clerical  and  lay, 
praying  that  God  "  will  pour  out  his  Spirit." 
They  forget  that  the  Spirit  has  been  poured  out 
once  for  all — that  he  came  to  the  praying  Church 
at  the  day  of  Pentecost,  but  that  his  dwelling-place 
ever  since  has  been,  and  still  is,  in  the  bosom 
of  the  Church,  in  the  hearts  of  the  individuals 
of  whom  the  Church  is  composed.  The  Spirit 
thus  dwelling  in  us,  "guiding  us  into  all  truth," 
"helping  our  infirmities,"  and  "bearing  witness 
with  our  spirits  that  we  are  the  children  of  God," 
is  the  same  Spirit  that  spoke  through  the  prophets, 
that  ruled  in  the  minds  of  the  apostles,  interpret- 
ing to  their  Christian  consciousness  the  prophets 
and  the  significance  of  the  sufferings,  the  works, 
the  words  and  the  person  of  Christ.  The  apostles 
were  "filled  with  the  Holy  Spirit."  "While  Peter 
yet  spake,  the  Holy  Ghost  fell  on  all  them  which 
heard  the  word."  The  Apostle  Paul,  moved  by 
the  same  Spirit,  spoke  as  the  Spirit  gave  him  ut- 
terance, and  spoke  "in  demonstration  of  the 
Spirit  and  of  power."  "There  were  diversities 
of  gifts  but  the  same  Spirit  "  ;  "  To  each  one  was 
given  the  manifestation  of  the  Spirit  to  profit 
withal ";  but  the  gifts  then  were,  as  they  still  are, 
to  living  persons  and  not  to  the  sacraments,  nor 
to  rites,  nor  to  the  words,  but  always  to  persons 
by  whom  sacraments  were  administered,  rites 
performed  and  the  word  preached.  And  this 
same  Spirit,  dwelling  in  you  as  preachers  of  the 
word,  when  you  shall  revolve  in  your  minds  the 
teachings  of  prophets,  of  Christ  and  his  apostles, 


THE   ECONOMY   OF   CHRISTIANITY.  27 

shall  interpret  to  you  their  meaning,  and,  animat- 
ing you  with  the  high  and  worthy  purpose  of 
proclaiming  that  meaning  to  others,  shall  enable 
you  to  wield  with  effectiveness  "the  sword  of 
the  Spirit,  which  is  the  word  of  God." 

If  now  the  office  of  preaching  in  the  economy 
of  Christianity  be  as  here  represented,  then  plainly 
it  never  can  rightly  be  supplanted  by  anything 
else.  And  it  is  equally  plain  that  for  any  young 
man  gifted  with  heart  and  talent  for  the  office 
of  preaching,  and  honestly  asking  how  best  he 
can  honor  his  Maker  and  serve  his  generation, 
no  calling  on  earth  is  so  high  and  so  certain  of 
enduring  results.  No  other  can  so  move  his 
soul  to  its  deepest  depths,  summoning  to  its 
service  every  energy  of  his  being.  As  repre- 
sentative of  the  eternal  God,  he  deals  with  truths 
which  no  human  soul  can  safely  neglect.  Amid 
illusive  and  transient  scenes  he  builds  for  eternity. 
May  the  Omniscient  Spirit,  without  whose  aid 
all  preaching  is  in  vain,  so  dwell  in  your  minds 
and  hearts  as  to  impart  to  you  and  your  words 
his  own  vital  and  vitalizing  energy;  so  shall  you 
build  both  effectively  and  securely,  and  your 
work  when  everything  earthly  will  have  vanished 
shall  still  abide. 

I  cannot  close  this  lecture  without  allusion  to 
one  who,  in  years  gone  by,  has  added  dignity  to 
these  occasions  by  his  presence;  whose  counte- 
nance, radiant  with  intelligence,  with  emotion, 
with  sympathy,  lent  inspiration  to  the  lecturers 
who  have  preceded  me.  Few  men  in  this  century 
have  better  understood  the  relation  of  the  pen 
to  speech,  of  the  press  to  the  pulpit;   few  men 


28  THE    PLACE    OF  PREACHING. 

have  had  a  higher  and  clearer  and  more  inspiring 
conception  of  the  true  office  of  the  Christian 
minister  than  the  Rev.  Dr.  Leonard  Bacon.  Full 
well  and  long — for  more  than  a  generation — did 
he  illustrate  in  his  life  the  power  and  the  function 
of  the  living  preacher,  the  place  of  preaching  in 
the  work  of  the  world's  redemption.  It  was  a 
well-spent  life;  a  life  drawn  out  into  a  green  old 
age;  an  old  age  that  was  beautified  with  the 
sweet  spirit  of  charity;  adorned  with  a  gentle 
though  sometimes  caustic  humor  and  wit,  and 
the  whole  sanctified  by  consecration  to  the 
service  of  Him  whom  we  all  alike  serve  as 
Master  and  Lord.  His  life  was  a  rare  illustration 
of  the  true  dignity  and  grandeur  of  the  mission 
of  the  preacher  of  righteousness.  He  is  not  here 
to-day.  He  walks  amid  immortal  scenes,  is 
reaping  the  harvest  of  a  well-spent  life.  He 
has  entered  into  that  rest  to  which  we  all  are 
hastening;  is  admitted  to  that  service  in  which, 
if  worthy,  we  at  the  last  shall  be  permitted  to 
participate. 


LECTURE   11. 

CONNECTION    OF    PREACHING    WITH    THE    PROG- 
RESS  OF   CHRISTIAN   NATIONS. 

The  progress  of  Christian  nations  since  the  in- 
troduction of  Christianity  among  them,  is  one  of 
the  most  noticeable  of  the  great  facts  of  history. 
In  explanation  of  this  progress,  the  most  diverse 
and  sometimes  conflicting  opinions  have  been  ex- 
pressed. But  foremost  among  the  many  forces 
contributing  to  it,  and  that  which  has  given  effi- 
ciency to  all  other  forces,  it  can  be  shown,  we 
think,  has  been  the  Christian  religion.  And  this, 
we  also  think,  will  be  found  to  be  true  whether 
we  direct  our  attention  only  to  the  teachings  of 
Christianity,  or  as  well  to  the  method  by  which 
a  knowledge  of  its  teachings  has  been  communi- 
cated through  preaching.  As  preaching  in  its 
distinctive  sense  is  the  announcement,  exposition, 
and  enforcement  of  Christian  truth,  the  connec- 
tion of  this  truth  with  a  nation's  advance  will  be 
included  in  the  broader  question  of  the  connection 
of  the  advance  with  the  oral  proclamation  of  the 
truth.  The  topic  of  our  lecture  this  afternoon 
will  be :  The  Connection  of  Preaching  zvith  the 
Progress  of  Christian  Nations. 


30  CONNECTION  OF  PREACHING   WITH 

Not  all  religions  have  ministered  to  the  con- 
tinuous progress  of  the  nations  that  have  accepted 
them.  Some,  that  at  first  have  carried  nations 
onward  with  rapid  strides,  have  soon  exhausted 
all  their  power;  and  stagnation  and  decay  have 
ensued.  Mahometanism  was  immeasurably  better 
than  the  idolatry  it  supplanted.  Lifted  by  it  to 
the  worship  of  one  Supreme  Being,  the  peoples 
accepting  it  started  at  once  on  a  new  career. 
Exchanging  polytheism  for  monotheism,  the 
Arabs  and  Moors  speedily  made  an  immense  ad- 
vance. They  were  at  once  put  in  training  for 
that  progress  in  civilization,  in  science,  and  phi- 
losophy, for  which,  in  due  time,  they  became  dis- 
tinguished among  the  nations  of  the  earth.  But 
Mahometanism,  in  due  time,  also  reached  the 
limits  of  its  power  to  elevate  and  carry  forward. 
And  now  no  amount  of  its  preaching  can  evoke 
from  it  the  elements  of  a  continuous  progress. 

Any  religion,  even  that  of  the  lowest  type,  may 
yet  be  better  than  none.  It  will  repress  some 
evils.  Every  religion  puts  its  ban  on  some  kinds 
of  vice,  stanches  some  sources  of  moral  evil, 
holds  in  check  some  passions  of  the  soul;  and  so 
far,  it  may  be  said  to  furnish  a  basis  for  civiliza- 
tion, and  to  minister  to  the  progress  of  a  people. 
The  very  idea  of  religion  is  that  of  obligation.  A 
religion  that  commands  me  to  abstain  from  one 
kind  of  wrong-doing,  though  it  permits,  or  even 
enjoins,  another  kind,  is  yet  good  so  far  as  it  goes. 
Any  kind  of  religion,  therefore,  so  far  as  it  restrains 
is  better  than  no  restraint.  When  Archbishop 
Whately  set  himself  deliberately  to  controvert 
this  sentiment,  he  did  so,  it  seems  to  me,  unwisely, 


THE  PROGRESS  OF  CHRISTIAN  NATIONS.      31 

and  he  did  not  make  good  his  position.  A  relig- 
ion that  will  hold  back  a  people  or  an  individual 
from  complete  moral  degradation  or  ruin  must 
have  in  it  some  power  for  good.  A  bramble-bush 
that  can  lift  the  creeping  vine  but  an  inch  above 
the  reeking  soil,  is  assuredly  better  than  no  sup- 
port. The  halter  that  holds  a  vicious  horse  by 
the  neck,  though  it  be  a  halter  with  a  slip-noose 
that  threatens  his  life,  is  better  than  no  halter. 
Religions,  therefore,  which  only  repress  some 
evils,  which  only  carry  forward  to  a  certain  stage, 
and  which  for  a  long  period  only  hold  peoples  at  the 
point  to  which  it  has  advanced  them,  are  by  no 
means  to  be  despised.  Brahminism  and  Bud- 
dhism have  not  themselves  been  progressive;  the 
peoples  accepting  them  as  religions  have  not  con- 
tinued to  advance.  Confucianism,  if  we  may  call 
it  a  religion,  has  not  carried  forward  its  adherents 
however  firmly  it  may  have  held  them  at  the 
point  to  which  it  has  brought  them.  But  Brah- 
minism and  Buddhism  and  Confucianism  and 
Mahometanism,  so  far  as  they  cultivate  any  vir- 
tues or  furnish  any  kind  of  a  basis  for  civilization 
to  work  on,  are  incomparably  better  than  no 
religion. 

That  there  is  an  intimate  and  mutual  rela- 
tion between  civilization  and  religion,  is  apparent 
enough  to  every  one.  It  is  a  relation  affording  a 
wide  field  of  thought:  a  field  to  which,  however, 
we  can  give  but  a  passing  glance,  and  such  glance 
only  as  is  necessitated  by  our  theme. 

If  we  examine  civilization,  we  shall  find,  at  its 
last  analysis,  that  it  consists  simply  in  the  dis- 
covery and  supply  of  wants.     The  man  that  first 


32  CONNECTION  OF  PREACHING    WITH 

discovered  a  want,  and  by  energy  and  industry 
supplied  it,  took  the  first  step  toward  civilization; 
for  when  one  want  had  been  supplied,  a  dozen 
others  at  once  presented  themselves;  each  of  these 
brought  its  dozen  others  to  light,  and  even  with 
more  than  geometrical  progression  an  endless  line 
of  them  sprung  into  view.  The  individual  or  race 
that  has  started  on  a  course  of  industry  requisite 
to  supply  this  ever  ascending  series  of  wants,  has 
entered  on  the  never-ending  career  of  civilization. 
Now,  a  civilization  that  is  to  be  healthfully  and 
continuously  progressive,  must  be  associated  with 
a  religion  that  can  keep  pace  with  it  and  support 
it.  If  unguided  or  misguided,  it  will  return  on 
itself  and  devour  its  own  vitals.  A  civilization 
rooted  and  growing  continuously  without  a  relig- 
ion, is  a  phenomenon  that  the  sun  has  not  yet 
looked  on  in  this  world.  One  of  the  earliest  wants 
of  which  man  becomes  aware,  a  want  which  his 
latest  experiences  in  life  only  make  the  more 
apparent,  is  his  need  of  some  kind  of  guidance 
to  his  innate  and  inexorable  sense  of  obligation, 
and  some  kind  of  provision  for  the  yearnings  of 
his  soul.  Attempts  to  supply  this  guidance  and 
provision,  have  given  to  the  world  an  indefinite 
number  of  kinds  and  forms  of  religion.  Seek  to 
account  for  the  origin  of  polytheism  and  of  idola- 
try in  any  way  you  may,  you  will  find  it  at  the 
end  of  your  inquiries,  if  at  all,  in  the  deep  sense 
of  need  to  which  the  soul  is  aroused  by  its  sur- 
roundings. Even  the  old  and  now  exploded  no- 
tion that  demons  were  the  authors  of  all  false 
religions,  implied  the  existence  of  conscious  wants 
which  the  religions  were  intended  to  supply.    The 


THE  PROGRESS  OF  CHRISTIAN  NATIONS.     33 

later  and  sounder  view  recognizes  the  truth  that 
it  is  the  voices  calling  to  him  from  invisible  sources, 
and  conscience  speaking  with  authority  from  with- 
in, which  prompt  him  to  provide  as  best  he  can 
a  shelter  for  his  soul  and  a  quiet  for  his  inward 
apprehensions.  Even  the  positivist  Comte,  after 
exhausting  his  resources  in  attempts  to  overthrow 
the  authority  of  both  philosophy  and  religion,  felt 
obliged  in  the  end  to  recognize  the  soul's  inexor- 
able demand  for  some  kind  of  religion,  and  so 
made  for  it  the  empty  provision  of  a  calendar  of 
saints.  Heathen,  Jewish,  and  Christian,  for  every 
day  in  the  year.  Civilization  and  religion  begin 
together  and  advance  together;  and  if  dissociated, 
both  alike  perish.  This  is  the  lesson  of  history, 
written  in  letters  of  blood,  which  all  the  world 
can  read. 

What  Christianity  can  do  for  the  civilization 
of  Christian  nations  may  be  seen  in  the  relation 
of  the  three  great  forms  or  types  under  which  the 
Christian  religion  always  exists.  You  always  find 
it  under  the  three  great  forms,  of  doctrine,  of 
worship,  and  of  conduct;  of  creed,  ritual,  and 
action.  Behind  one's  worship  and  conduct  al- 
ways lies  his  innermost  belief;  outside  and  ex- 
pressive of  his  belief,  always  stand  his  devotions 
and  his  deeds.  Ascertain  one's  belief,  and  you 
know  for  a  certainty  what  or  whom  he  worships, 
and  what  is  the  quality  of  his  deeds.  Know  what 
his  worship  and  his  deeds  really  are,  and  you 
know  what  he  really  believes. 

Now,  Christianity  strikes  at  once  for  one's  be- 
lief. Controlling  that,  all  else  follows  naturally 
and  inevitably.     Controlling  that,  it  controls  con- 


34  CONNECTION  OF  PREACHING    WITH 

science  and  so  rules  the  whole  man.  Controlling 
conscience,  it  produces  a  type  of  manhood  known 
distinctively  as  Christian.  A  society  or  nation 
composed  of  such  types,  or  largely  abounding 
in  them,  presents  a  distinctively  Christian  civili- 
zation,— a  civilization  which,  as  compared  with 
any  other  yet  seen  on  earth,  is  pure  in  its  moral- 
ity, gentle  in  its  spirit,  unselfish  in  its  charities, 
exalted  in  its  aims,  refined  in  its  tastes,  strong 
in  its  virtue,  beautiful  in  its  harmonies,  and  which 
carries  within  itself  the  power  of  a  perpetual  im- 
provement. To  control  the  belief  and  the  con- 
sciences of  mankind  and  thus  to  start  them  on 
this  career  of  endless  improvement  is  the  aim 
of  all  true  preaching. 

But  it  must  be  admitted  that  Christianity  has 
not  always  ministered  to  the  progress  of  the 
peoples  among  whom  it  has  been  established. 
There  are  not  wanting  instances  of  a  decline  of 
civilization,  and  even  of  national  retrogression, 
in  spite  of  its  presence  and  power.  The  fault 
has  not  been  with  Christianity,  but  with  those 
who  have  claimed  the  exclusive  prerogative  of 
administering  its  ofifices.  They  have  displaced 
doctrines  and  preaching  from  their  fundamental 
positions,  and  have  exalted  ritual  over  both  doc- 
trine and  conduct.  They  have  transformed  the 
Christianity  of  Christ  into  a  system  of  sacerdotal- 
ism and  sacramentarianism,  which  has  deprived 
it  of  the  very  power  by  which  national  life  could 
be  kept  pure,  and  national  progress  be  ensured. 
They  have  re-enacted  the  history  of  the  priest- 
hood as  it  ministered  religion  in  the  days  of  the 
Jewish   Republic, — a    ministry    under    which   the 


THE  PROGRESS  OF  CHRISTIAN  NATIONS.      35 

Republic  went  rapidly  downward,  till  its  final 
overthrow  at  the  great  national  disaster  at  Shiloh. 
And  Jewish  history  will  throw  light  on  our 
theme,  if  we  follow  it  down  from  the  time  of  the 
Republic  through  the  kingly  period.  The  rela- 
tion of  Judaism  to  Christianity  makes  the  lessons 
doubly  instructive;  for  never  should  we  forget 
that  the  words  of  Jesus,  "  Salvation  is  of  the 
Jews,"  contained  more  than  the  mere  meaning 
that  the  Messiah  was  to  be  of  the  lineage  of 
David.  All  that  is  distinctive  in  Christianity  lay 
germinally  in  Judaism.  In  Christianity,  the  germs 
burst  forth  into  full  and  final  fruitage.  The  star- 
light of  Abraham,  the  twilight  of  Moses,  the 
reddening  dawn  of  the  prophetic  period,  vanished 
in  the  broad  daylight  of  the  Sun  of  Righteous- 
ness. But  Jewish  history  is  instructive  to  us,  in 
dealing  with  our  theme,  chiefly  by  the  illustration 
it  supplies  of  the  comparative  influence  of  the  priest- 
ly and  prophetic  or  preaching  function  on  the  pro- 
gress of  the  Jewish  people.  That  the  prophet 
of  the  Old  Testament  was  the  original  of  the 
preacher  of  the  New  Testament,  no  one  can  just- 
ly dispute.  And  that,  under  their  prophets  or 
preachers,  the  Jewish  people  advanced  in  civiliza- 
tion, in  general  and  religious  knowledge,  and  above 
all  in  moral  character,  beyond  anything  ever  at- 
tained, or  by  any  possibility  attainable,  under 
the  mere  priestly  ministrations  of  their  religion, 
no  reader  of  the  Old  Testament  will  venture  to 
deny.  It  was  under  priestly  domination,  as  we 
have  already  said,  that  the  Republic  went  down; 
it  was  with  the  introduction  of  the  prophets  that 
the  onward  movement  of  the  nation  clearly  began. 


36  CONNECTION  OF  PREACHING   WITH 

From  Samuel,  and  the  schools  of  the  prophets 
which  he  founded,  sprang  a  power  that  never 
ceased  its  influence  for  good  among  the  Jews, 
that  is.  still  perpetuated  in  the  office  of  the  Chris- 
tian preacher. 

When  the  last  of  the  prophets  had  spoken, 
when  the  synagogue  had  become  an  established 
institution  among  the  Jews,  and  when  the  writings 
of  Moses  and  of  the  prophets,  collected  into  a 
volume,  were  accustomed  to  be  read  in  the  syn- 
agogues every  Sabbath-day,  and  any  one  whose 
endowments,  education  and  experience  qualified 
him  to  expound  what  had  been  read  was  at  lib- 
erty to  speak — and  you  will  remember  what  the 
evangelist  Luke  tells  us  of  Jesus  at  Nazareth, 
where  he  had  been  brought  up,  and  of  Paul  and 
Barnabas  at  Antioch  in  Pisidia — then  and  thus 
was  it  that  prophecy  passed  over  into  preaching, 
and  the  Jewish  synagogue  became  the  nucleus 
and  the  groundwork  of  the  Christian  church. 
Prophecy  and  thd  synagogue  raised  one  natron 
from  a  low  to  a  high  estate;  preaching  and  the 
Christian  church — the  church  patterned  after  the 
synagogue  and  not  after  the  temple — has  lifted 
many  nations  out  of  heathenism,  and  to-day  is 
taking  them  rapidly  forward  on  careers  toward 
goals  which  no  prophecy  has  foretold,  and  no 
prophet  seems  to  have  been  permitted  to  foresee. 

But,  in  forming  our  estimate  of  the  value  of 
preaching  as  an  element  of  national  progress,  we 
must  remember,  as  before  said,  that  the  subject- 
matter  preached  is  quite  as  essential  as  the  sim- 
ple act  of  preaching.  Mere  oral  teaching  or 
preaching  of  a  religion  does  not  ensure  progress. 


THE  PROGRESS  OF  CHRISTIAN  NATIONS.      37 

Islam  has  its  religious  discourses.  It  has  been 
said  that,  "  In  the  pilgrimage  to  Mecca  the  de- 
livery of  the  sermon  is  the  most  impressive  of  all 
the  solemnities."  Travelers  have  given  extracts 
from  sermons  which  they  say  were  delivered  on 
that  occasion  with  great  energy,  and  which 
awakened  great  enthusiasm.  But  Islam  is  a 
crystallized  religion,  a  species  of  fatalism  which 
neither  itself  expands  nor  admits  of  expansion 
among  its  adherents.  Christianity,  on  the  con- 
trary, fixed  for  a  finality  only  in  its  historical  facts, 
its  ethical  principles,  and  the  religious  truths 
which  the  facts  and  the  principles  necessarily  im- 
ply, is  yet  in  its  spirit  as  expansive  as  the  atmos- 
phere we  breathe.  No  region  accessible  to  man 
is  too  high  for  it;  no  goal,  to  which  the  native 
endowments  of  the  race  can  carry  it,  lies  beyond 
its  reach.  Inexhaustible  as  the  Godhead  in  its 
resources,  its  life-giving  power  is  commensurate 
with  the  omniscient  and  omnipresent  Spirit  by 
whom  alone  its  power  can  be  imparted.  Chris- 
tainity  can  never  be  outgrown. 

Let  us  now  inquire  how  Christian  preaching 
does  thus  minister  to  the  progress  of  Christian 
nations.  Let  us  begin  with  the  subject-matter 
preached.  Christianity  provokes  inquisitiveness, 
which  is  a  first  condition  of  progress.  Its  com- 
mands are:  "Prove  all  things;"  "Try  the  spirits." 
There  is  not  a  solitary  word  that  commands  or 
countenances  a  surrender  of  the  right  of  private 
judgment  to  any  earthly  authority.  The  very 
idea  of  a  real  surrender  of  will  to  authority  im- 
plies some  kind  of  intelligent  recognition  of  the 
ground    or   right    of   authority.      Even    Jehovah 


38  CONNECTION  OF  PREACHING    WITH 

himself — if  I  may  reverently  say  so — plants  him- 
self over  against  both  nations  and  individuals, 
and  says:  "Come  now,  and  let  us  reason  to- 
gether." Christian  faith,  in  any  clear  explana- 
tion that  can  be  given  of  it,  requires  an  assent  of 
the  intellect,  in  order  that  there  may  be  a  gen- 
uine consent  of  the  heart. 

Again,  Christianity  individualizes  man.  To 
move  masses  of  men,  there  must  always  be  a 
movement  of  the  individuals  of  which  the  masses 
are  composed.  Christianity  accordingly  affirms 
explicitly  that  "  every  man  shall  give  account  of 
himself  unto  God."  In  dealing  with  men,  it 
singles  out  each  one,  and  places  him  alone  with 
God.  It  aims  at  the  solidarity  of  the  race,  but 
does  so  by  making  each  one  feel  that  he  is  one 
of  the  race,  and  to  a  degree  responsible  for  the 
whole.  It  says:  "Bear  ye  one  another's  bur- 
dens;" but  then,  lest  the  individual  should  think 
to  escape  his  personal  responsibility  by  merging 
himself  in  the  mass,  it  adds,  "  Every  man  shall 
bear  his  own  burden."  Every  man,  thus  isolated, 
is  set  to  thinking,  is  awakened  to  a  sense  of  obli- 
gation and  of  a  need  of  exertion  to  fulfill  it.  There 
are  planted  within  him  the  seeds  of  a  new  and 
ever  improving  life.  A  nation  composed  of  such 
men  cannot  fail  to  advance  with  rapid  strides, 
whatever  the  position  from  which  it  starts. 

And  so  again  Christianity  furnishes  a  goal  and 
appliances  for  reaching  it,  which  admit  of  noth- 
ing short  of  endless  progress.  "  Be  ye  perfect 
even  as  your  Father  in  heaven  is  perfect "  is  its 
standard.  It  not  only  enjoins  truth,  honor,  jus- 
tice, purity,  charity,  but  the  cultivation  of  every 


THE  PROGRESS  OF  CHRISTIAN  NATIONS.      39 

known  virtue  and  of  whatever  is  praiseworthy 
among  men.  It  forbids  moral  indolence.  It  sets 
the  whole  soul  in  motion.  It  puts  a  spark  within 
the  bosom,  which,  once  kindled  into  a  flame,  con- 
sumes every  other  passion.  It  is,  I  know,  a 
troublesome  religion.  It  will  neither  compro- 
mise with  error  nor  rest  at  peace  for  a  moment  in 
the  presence  of  any  kind  of  sin.  He  who  intro- 
duced it  into  the  world  declared  it  would  bring 
conflict.  "Think  not  that  I  am  come  to  bring 
peace  but  a  sword,"  said  he  whose  coming  was 
announced  by  the  angels  as  the  coming  of  peace 
on  earth.  "  I  am  come  to  send  fire  on  the  earth 
and  what  will  I  if  it  be  already  kindled,"  It  is  a 
religion  which  sets  men  into  conflict  with  every 
form  of  evil,  and  never  lets  them  stay  in  their 
course  so  long  as  there  is  a  moral  evil  to  be 
overcome,  or  a  wrong  to  be  righted.  A  nation 
thus  moved  will  never  rest  content  on  any  low 
level  either  of  morals  or  of  intelligence.  So 
much  for  the  subject-matter  preached. 

Now,  for  the  act  of  oral  teaching  or  preaching. 
All  that  makes  Christianity  the  religion  of  prog- 
ress is  made  doubly  so  by  the  living  preacher. 
First,  the  inquisitiveness  which  the  gospel  pro- 
vokes is  intensified  by  oral  address.  The  hearer 
is  challenged.  His  mind  is  called  into  exercise 
by  the  very  act  of  address.  What  is  said  may 
awaken  antagonism;  but  antagonism  is  better  than 
indifference.  Better  that  he  be  roused  into  fierce 
opposition,  if,  thereby  into  inquiry.  Inquisitive- 
ness, honest  doubt,  even  sharp  controversy,  give 
evidence  of  life;  and  life  is  better  than  death. 
Even  the  battle-field  is  preferable  to  the  tomb. 


40  CONNECTION  OF  PREACHING   WITH 

So,  also,  the  individualizing  method  of  Chris- 
tianity becomes  still  more  apparent  in  preaching. 
Preaching  is  a  direct  appeal  through  an  individ 
ual  to  individuals;  for  though  the  preacher  ad- 
dresses men  in  the  mass,  yet  each  individual 
hearer  feels  himself  to  be  addressed  by  the 
speaker.  Multitudes  of  individuals  thus  have 
truth  forced  on  their  attention,  who  otherwise 
would  give  no  heed  to  it.  Each  one  is  made  to 
think  for  himself  of  his  relation  to  God.  A  whole 
nation  is  thus  put  in  motion  towards  God  and  the 
right,  because  each  unit  of  which  the  nation  is 
composed  is  individualized  and  set  moving. 

Preaching,  also,  keeps  the  ideal  standard  for 
individuals  and  the  race  in  continual  view;  and 
so  it  is  ever  impelling  a  nation  onward  in  the 
path  of  improvement.  The  preacher,  if  faithful 
to  his  trust,  overlooks  no  vice,  loses  sight  of  no 
virtue,  but  holds  up,  always  high,  the  perfect 
standard.  He  sets  forth  the  attributes  of  the  in- 
finitely Perfect  One  as  being  at  once  the  pledge 
of  all  that  humanity  is  capable  of  and  the  pattern 
of  all  it  should  aspire  to.  Such  then  is  the  fitness 
of  preaching  as  an  instrument  of  progress. 

Let  us  turn  now  to  what  Christian  preaching 
has  actually  accomplished  in  the  past.  We  might 
begin  Avith  the  marvelous  changes  wrought  by  it 
in  the  hands  of  the  apostles  and  their  fellow-la- 
borers. Or  descending  a  few  centuries  later, 
we  might  contemplate  the  work  of  Chrysostom, 
whose  golden  words,  first  at  Antioch  and  after- 
wards at  Constantinople,  long  held  in  check  the 
forces  of  corruption  and  ruin  brought  into  exist- 
ence by  confluence  of  the  old  and  opposing  civil- 


THE  PROGRESS  OF  CHRISTIAN  NATIONS.     41 

izations  of  the  East  and  the  West.  But  let  us  come 
forward  several  centuries,  stopping  near  the  close 
of  the  eleventh  century.  Amid  the  darkness  of 
that  period,  Peter  of  Amiens,  known  as  Peter  the 
Hermit,  made  his  appearance.  He  was  a  preacher. 
His  soul  was  on  fire  from  what  he  had  thought 
and  felt  and  seen  at  the  tomb  of  the  Saviour. 
He  was  inflamed,  possibly,  in  part  by  memory 
of  the  treatment  himself  had  received  in  his  ef- 
forts to  visit  the  Holy  Sepulchre,  but  still  more 
by  recollection  of  the  life  and  sufferings  and 
death  and  triumph  of  that  Lord  whose  life  had 
been  spent  and  whose  body  had  been  buried  in 
the  land  he  had  visited.  He  was  intent  upon  the 
rescue  of  the  Holy  Land  and  Sepulchre  from  the 
grasp  of  the  infidel.  Guizot,  I  know,  tells  us  in 
his  History  of  France,  that  it  was  not  the  preach- 
ing of  Peter  that  originated  the  first  crusade,  but 
"  the  religious  belief  and  feeling  of  the  nations." 
But,  pray,  how  did  religious  belief  or  feeling  or- 
ganize itself  into  that  great  movement,  except 
as  appealed  to  and  roused  into  action  by  the 
preaching  of  Peter  t  And  we  greatly  err  if  we 
suppose  that  the  theme  of  Peter's  preaching  was 
alone  the  recovery  of  the  Holy  Sepulchre.  That 
doubtless  was  in  general,  perhaps  uniformly,  the 
chief  aim  of  his  discourses;  but,  in  preparing  his 
hearers  for  this  immediate  end — that  they  should 
hurl  themselves  upon  the  invaders  of  the  Holy 
Land — he  reminded  them  of  what  the  Saviour 
had  said  and  done  and  suffered.  And  in  this, 
there  must  have  been  something  of  genuine 
Christian  preaching.  It  was  impossible,  wild 
and  chimerical  as  was  the  end  he  aimed  at,  that 


42  CONNECTION  OF  PREACHING    WITH 

he  should  have  reached  it  by  preaching,  except 
by  dwelling  on  what  would  even  now  be  regarded 
as  some  of  the  distinctive  truths  and  principles  of 
the  Christian  religion.  The  preaching  of  Peter 
then  was  useful  to  Europe  simply  as  a  means  of 
diffusing  a  knowledge  of  Christian  truth. 

It  is  not  my  purpose  to  dwell  on  the  reflex 
influence  which  came  back  over  Europe  from 
that  century  or  more  of  crusades,  each  of  which 
was  more  or  less  directly  carried  forward  by  the 
office  of  preaching.  This  was  an  influence  for 
good,  in  many  ways;  and  to  dwell  on  it  might 
show  the  connection  of  preaching,  though  re- 
motely, with  national  progress.  But  the  preach- 
ing of  Peter  and  of  St.  Bernard,  that  resulted  in 
two  crusades,  did  something  more  than  affect 
Europe  remotely,  and  by  reflex  influence.  The 
gospel  that  fell  from  their  lips,  though  mixed 
with  error,  fell  into  receptive  minds,  and  bore 
fruit  immediately  and  long  afterwards.  It  remains 
for  the  peering  eye  of  some  minute  historian  yet 
to  trace  the  direct  influence  of  the  preaching  of 
Peter  and  Bernard  in  the  moral  improvement 
of  the  people  of  their  time. 

If  we  descend  a  century  from  Peter,  or  a  half 
century  from  St.  Bernard,  we  come  upon  other 
great  examples  of  the  influence  of  preaching.  In 
1 170,  there  was  born  of  one  of  the  humbler  of  the 
noble  families  of  Spain,  a  man  who  came  early  in 
life  to  possess  a  lively  appreciation  of  the  religion 
of  his  time,  and  a  strong  sympathy  with  its  spirit. 
Crossing  the  Pyrenees  from  Spain,  he  encountered 
the  Albigenses  and  their  heretical  beliefs.  He 
heard  of  other  sects,  the  Waldenses  and  Petro- 


THE  PROGRESS  OF  CHRISTIAN  NATIONS.     43 

brussians.  Among  them  all,  were  busy  preachers 
setting  forth  doctrines,  and  presenting  types  of 
faith  and  practice  directly  in  conflict  with  the 
established  faith  and  practice  of  the  Roman 
Church.  In  that  church,  all  was  overshadowed 
by  ritual.  Preaching  was  rapidly  falling  into 
disuse.  St.  Dominic  saw  that,  as  among  the  mul- 
tiplying heresies  of  his  time,  the  one  great  means 
by  which  they  were  spread  was  preaching.  So 
the  means  by  which  they  could  be  resisted  and 
overcome  must  also  be  by  preaching.  He  became 
himself  a  noted  preacher;  he  founded  a  monastic 
order  pledged  to  the  one  work  of  preaching.  By 
papal  decree,  his  new  order,  the  patres  predica- 
tores,  the  preaching  friars,  was  duly  established  in 
12 17.  Within  twenty  years  from  the  time  that 
Dominic  gathered  the  first  members  of  his  order, 
or  before  the  end  of  the  first  quarter  of  the  century 
in  which  the  order  was  established,  every  nation 
in  Christendom  had  its  preaching  friars. 

And  these  friars,  wherever  they  went,  found 
willing  ears.  We  err  if  we  accept  the  popular 
notion  that  the  thirteenth,  or  the  last  quarter 
of  the  twelfth  century  was  a  dark  and  stagnant 
age.  There  was  not  only  great  intellectual  life 
in  the  universities,  but  the  common  people  were 
also  roused  to  thought  and  inquiry  by  the  thou- 
sands of  students  who  from  every  Christian  nation 
were  then  flocking  to  all  the  great  universities. 
Among  the  common  people,  and  into  the  univer- 
sities themselves,  these  preaching  friars  found 
their  way,  proclaiming  the  gospel  as  they 
understood  it,  and  helping  all  onward  towards 
the  better  days  that  were  in  store  for  them. 


44  CONNECTION  OF  PREACHING   WITH 

Scarcely  had  Dominic  gotten  his  order  of 
preaching  friars  fairly  at  work,  when  St.  Francis 
of  Assisi,  born  twelve  years  after  Dominic,  founded 
a  new  and  similar  order.  Francis,  the  son  of  a 
tradesman,  saw  the  people  about  him  indifferent 
to  religion,  and  the  church  edifices  falling  into 
decay.  He  renounced  all  claims  to  inheritance 
from  his  father,  and  throwing  down  even  the 
clothes  that  he  wore  at  the  feet  of  the  Bishop, 
pledged  himself  to  absolute  poverty  and  to 
preaching  the  gospel.  The  order  of  mendicant 
friars  which  he  organized  not  only  traversed  all 
Christian  lands  as  preachers,  but  became  the 
foreign  missionaries  of  that  day.  Their  preaching 
may  have  been  dreary,  may  have  been  laden  with 
gross  superstitions,  but  it  was  equal  to  their  day, 
and  sufficient  for  their  time,  and  wrought  won- 
drous results. 

The  preaching  friars,  both  Dominicans  and 
Franciscans,  it  must  be  admitted,  in  time  became 
audacious,  insolent,  and  cruel.  The  Dominicans, 
as  founders  and  managers  of  the  Inquisition, 
became  execrable  in  the  eyes  of  all  lovers  of 
justice  and  right;  the  Franciscans,  as  assailants 
of  whatever  was  above  the  level  of  their  acknowl- 
edged beggary,  were  unbearably  impertinent. 
Both  worked  their  way  into  the  universities; 
at  first  as  denouncers  of  philosophy  and  learning, 
but  afterwards  embracing  in  their  ranks  some 
most  eminent  scholars.  But  preaching  as  they 
did  everywhere  in  vernacular  tongues  to  the  most 
ignorant  and  lowly,  their  labors  were  invaluable 
in  quickening  intellects,  in  purifying  morals,  and 
so  in  exalting  the  national  character.     They  were 


THE  PROGRESS  OF  CHRISTIAN  NATIONS.      45 

the  forerunners  of  those  preachers  of  a  purer 
gospel  who,  three  centuries  later,  lifted  up  their 
voices  among  the  peoples  of  Switzerland,  of 
Germany,  and  of  England  and  Scotland. 

But  not  the  least  valuable  service  rendered 
by  these  friars  was  that  of  making  the  common 
people  aware  that  Christianity  was  not  a  mere 
matter  of  ritual,  but  of  truths  which  were  to  be 
understood,  believed  in,  and  put  in  practice.  The 
priesthood,  the  hierarchy,  then,  as  always,  wheth- 
er in  Judaism  or  Christianity,  were  profound  be- 
lievers in  the  sacerdotal  principle.  The  mass  of  the 
priesthood,  when  these  friars  began  their  work,  ig- 
norant and  not  always  virtuous,  had  unbounded 
confidence  in  the  efficacy  of  the  sacraments.  The 
very  idea  of  a  priest,  namely,  that  of  one  who 
transacts  with  God  for  others,  makes  it  necessary 
that  he,  of  all  men,  should  be  the  most  conser- 
vative. He  would  have  things  remain  as  they 
are,  provided  his  ritual  is  duly  observed.  How 
strangely  was  this  illustrated  in  1861,  when,  all 
over  our  land,  the  genuine  priests,  the  members 
of  hierarchies  of  whatever  name,  hesitated,  and 
mumbled  and  muttered,  and  see-sawed,  uncertain 
which  way  to  turn.  And  as  to  the  men  who 
to-day  believe  in  the  efficacy  of  the  sacerdotal 
function;  are  they  the  first  to  assail  any  strongly 
entrenched  evil .''  Were  they  the  first  to  cry  out 
against  the  wrong  of  slavery  .-'  Are  they  leaders 
against  the  great  and  growing  evils  of  intemper- 
ance .-*  Alas  !  it  is  not  in  the  nature  of  the 
priesthood  to  originate  or  to  push  reforms.  But 
the  prophet,  the  preacher,  whether  preaching 
friar  or  evangelical  pastor,  by  the  very  function 


46  CONNECTION  OF  PREACHING    WITH 

of  orally  dealing  with  ideas,  necessarily  contrib- 
utes to  an  onward  movement;  and  the  people,  in 
spite  of  their  own  inertia,  and  the  deadening 
influence  of  sacerdotalism,  are  made  to  advance. 

Pass  to  another  period,  three  centuries  later; 
to  the  introduction  of  what  is  called  the  Protes- 
tant Reformation.  Certainly  we  cannot  too  de- 
cidedly recognize  the  great  value  of  the  learning 
of  that  period.  But  to  dwell  on  this  now  would 
be  irrelevant.  We  must  look  for  its  preachers. 
And  we  shall  find  these  arresting  our  attention 
at  the  very  outset  of  the  great  movement.  In- 
deed, among  the  reformers  who  preceded  the 
organized  Reformation,  were  not  a  few  who  sought 
the  pulpit,  and  gave  no  uncertain  sound  from  it. 
And  when  the  movement  had  once  begun,  it  was 
oral  proclamation  of  its  principles  that  everywhere 
organized  it,  consolidated  it,  and  gave  it  breath 
and  strength.  At  Paris,  we  find  John  Calvin 
converted  to  the  evangelical  faith,  preaching  at 
the  age  of  twenty-one  with  great  zeal,  frequency, 
and  success.  And  afterwards,  with  all  his  mul- 
tifarious labors  as  an  author,  theologian,  and  com- 
mentator, he  never  ceased  to  make  use  of  the 
pulpit.  Amid  all  his  arduous  and  incessant  la- 
bors at  Geneva,  he  continued  to  deliver  three  ser- 
mons every  alternate  week.  And  it  was  his  ser- 
mons, more  than  his  writings,  that  first  gave  him 
his  influence  at  Paris,  and  afterwards  made  him 
the  great  leader  at  Geneva. 

But  it  is  not  to  be  forgotten  that  the  preaching 
of  Calvin  and  his  co-adjutors  never  reached  the 
lower  classes  of  the  French  people.  It  reached 
some  of  the  noble  families;  it  found  many  hearers 


THE  PROGRESS  OF  CHRISTIAN  NATIONS.     47 

in  the  higher  grade  of  the  middle  classes;  but  it 
never  took  hold  of  the  hearts  of  either  the  peas- 
ants or  the  humbler  toilers  of  the  towns.  The 
Huguenots  were  almost  entirely  composed  of  the 
upper  portion  of  the  middle  class.  The  lower 
strata  of  French  society  were  never  touched  by 
the  Reformers.  John  Calvin,  associating  from 
childhood  with  the  better  classes  of  French  so- 
ciety, and  blest  with  the  very  best  education  that 
could  be  given  him,  was  naturally  more  in  sym- 
pathy with  the  cultured  and  well-born  than  with 
the  lowly  and  the  ignorant.  The  training  to  which 
for  a  time  he  subjected  himself,  with  a  view  to 
entering  the  legal  profession,  only  heightened  the 
tendency  given  by  early  associations  and  educa- 
tion. He  never  won  the  heart  of  the  common 
people,  even  in  his  best  days  at  Geneva. 

Martin  Luther,  on  the  contrary,  born  of  the 
lowliest  parentage,  was  a  preacher  who  thrilled 
the  heart  of  the  German  people,  reaching  alike 
peasant,  artisan,  tradesman,  and  nobleman.  At 
home  as  he  was  with  the  humblest,  and  yet  fa- 
miliar with  such  learning  as  was  open  to  him,  he 
not  only  spread  by  his  preaching  the  contagion 
of  his  religious  enthusiasm  and  faith  in  the 
ranks  to  which  by  birth  and  early  training  he  be- 
longed, but  kindled  a  fire  that  ascended  through 
all  ranks  to  the  highest.  Hence  Germany  became 
a  Protestant  nation,  made  so  primarily  by  the 
preaching  of  Luther  and  his  associates,  and 
kept  so  permanently  by  Luther's  translation  of 
the  Bible. 

So  of  John  Knox's  preaching.  It  was  the  voice 
of  Knox  that  made  the  heart  of  Mary  quake;  it 


48  CONNECTION  OF  PREACHING    WITH 

was  his  voice  that  swayed  the  people  of  Scotland 
as  the  winds  sway  her  fir-trees.  His  sermons, 
that  seemed  to  vanish  with  the  breath  that  uttered 
them,  wrote  themselves  in  indelible  letters  on  the 
character  of  the  Scottish  people. 

So,  also,  you  will  find  it  was  Latimer  who, 
always  plain,  often  rude,  sometimes  almost  vul- 
gar in  speech,  at  times  greatly  wanting  in  that 
dignity  which  should  belong  to  the  preacher  of 
righteousness,  yet  found  his  way  directly  to  the 
hearts  of  the  English  people,  and,  more  than  any 
other  man,  brought  them  into  sympathy  with  the 
principles  and  aims  of  the  Reformation.  And,  since 
the  days  of  Latimer,  how  has  the  Protestant  pul- 
pit changed  the  whole  current  of  English  thought 
and  feeling  and  life  !  Changed  English  character; 
made  England  to  be  what  it  is  to-day.  It  is 
common,  I  know,  to  laud  the  political  admin- 
istrations of  England,  and  to  say  of  one,  that  it 
turned  the  wealth  of  the  Indies  into  the  lap  of 
England;  and  of  another,  that  it  abolished  the 
Corn  Laws  and  established  Free  Trade;  and  of 
another,  that  it  achieved  great  victories,  or  opened 
new  channels  of  trade,  or  widened  the  suffrage; 
but  after  summing  up  all  that  governments  have 
accomplished,  the  result  is  as  nothing  in  compar- 
ison with  what  the  Protestant  pulpit  has  wrought 
in  giving  to  England  all  that  she  can  boast  of  as 
praiseworthy  now,  or  as  likely  to  be  permanent 
hereafter. 

It  has  been  common,  also,  to  deride  the  Puri- 
tans and  their  influence  in  English  history.  But 
long  and  tedious  as  were  their  sermons,  narrow 
as  were  their  views,  and  bigoted  as  they  were  in 


THE  PROGRESS  OF  CHRISTIAN  NATIONS,     49 

spirit,  they  yet  made  lines  on  the  English  face 
that  to-day  help  to  give  it  dignity.  It  was  the 
Puritan  pulpit  more  than  any  other  single  cause 
that,  directly  or  indirectly,  lifted  England  from 
the  low  level  on  which  Puritanism  found  it,  and 
set  it  on  that  ascending  way  which  has  brought 
it  to  the  point  where  it  now  stands. 

The  relation  of  the  pulpit  to  national  progress 
was  conspicuously  apparent  in  two  great  national 
revolutions,  with  which  history  has  made  us  all 
familiar;  namely,  the  English  revolution  in  1688, 
and  the  French  in  1793.  The  last  named  lies 
nearest  to  us;  let  us  begin  with  that. 

From  the  beginning  of  the  Reformation  in 
France,  its  advocates  had  insisted  in  their  preach- 
ing on  the  right  to  interpret  Scripture  for  them- 
selves, and  to  walk  according  to  its  light  instead 
of  yielding  an  unreasoning  obedience  to  the 
authority  of  the  Roman  Church.  Persecutions, 
persistent,  cruel  and  bloody,  drove  hundreds 
of  thousands  from  France  and  virtually  ended  for 
a  time  Protestant  preaching.  But  there  lingered 
in  the  minds  of  the  French  people  as  a  result  of  pul- 
pit teaching  a  deep-seated  sense  of  outraged  rights. 
Rights  of  conscience  which  Protestantism  had  so 
boldly  insisted  on,  grew  rapidly  into  political 
rights  of  man.  On  the  rights  of  man  the  en- 
cyclopaedists and  their  supporters  rang  endless 
changes.  The  hearts  of  Frenchmen,  or  rather  of 
Parisians  who  in  reality  were  France,  were  in- 
flamed with  the  idea  that  they  had  been  robbed 
of  their  rights.  A  perverted  truth,  falling  among 
the  tinder-like  errors  of  the  time  was  the  spark 
that  kindled  the  revolutionary  fire  which  swept 


50  CONNECTION  OF  PREACHING   WITH 

away  in  a  twinkling  the  creations  of  generations 
of  corruption  and  tyranny. 

In  England,  on  the  contrary,  an  untrammelled 
pulpit  had  dwelt  long  and  assiduously  on  the 
duties  of  man.  No  characteristic  of  Puritanism 
was  more  strongly  marked  than  its  unyielding  re- 
gard for  duty.  Out  of  that  sprang,  both  the  stern- 
ness of  its  temper  and  the  vigor  of  its  defense  of 
all  personal  rights.  What  Kant  afterwards  taught 
metaphysically,  they  seem  to  have  held  to  prac- 
tically, namely,  that  all  human  rights  are  grounded 
in  human  duties.  It  was  their  deep  and  relent- 
less sense  of  duty,  duty  to  God,  to  their  country- 
men, and  to  themselves,  that  prompted  the  judges 
to  send  Charles  the  First  to  the  scaffold.  And 
from  the  death  of  Charles,  down  through  the 
Commonwealth  and  the  reign  of  Charles  the  Sec- 
ond, to  the  time  of  the  Second  James,  the  Eng- 
lish pulpit  never  ceased  to  instil  into  the  minds 
of  Englishmen  their  duties  to  God  and  to  one 
another.  And  when  the  revolution  of  1688  came, 
and  James  was  to  be  dethroned,  and  a  new  dy- 
nasty was  to  be  established,  could  any  revolution 
have  been  more  complete,  and  at  the  same  time 
more  absolutely  bloodless  and  peaceful }  And  all 
was  due  to  the  temper  of  the  people,  a  temper 
that  was  the  product  of  the  Protestant  pulpit. 
Good,  noble,  heroic,  exiled  old  John  Howe  on 
the  continent,  conferring  with  the  Prince  of 
Orange,  and  the  Prince  of  Orange  entering  into 
Howe's  ideas  and  sympathizing  with  his  spirit,  give 
us  a  plain  clew  to  the  means  by  which  the  Revolu- 
tion was  brought  about,  and  to  the  causes  of  its 
permanence  as  well  as  of  its  beneficent  influence 


THE  PROGRESS  OF  CHRISTIAN  NATIONS.      51 

in  all  subsequent  English  history;  means  and 
causes  traceable  directly  to  the  English  Bible, 
and  the  Protestant  teaching  and  preaching  of 
what  the  Bible  enjoins. 

But  here  it  will,  doubtless,  be  asked,  Have  you 
not  forgotten  some  of  the  drawbacks  and  qualifi- 
cations that  should  be  made  in  thus  sketching 
the  influence  of  preaching  on  national  progress? 
Has  it  not  often  happened  that  the  pulpit  has 
sounded  forth  its  anathemas  against  some  of  the 
most  useful  discoveries  of  science  ?  Has  it  not 
often  insanely  denounced  some  of  the  most  self- 
denying  and  painstaking  laborers  in  science? 
Was  not  Roger  Bacon,  that  father  of  modern 
science,  who  more  than  three  centuries  before  his 
namesake,  Francis  Bacon,  wrote  the  Organon, 
persecuted  and  imprisoned  by  his  fellowFrancis- 
cans,  the  famous  preaching  friars  already  referred 
to  in  this  lecture,  simply  because  he  sought  to  make 
nature  do  what  it  is  now  so  effectively  doing  in 
ministering  to  the  progress  of  the  nations  ?  Was 
it  not  the  Dominicans,  the  other  great  preachers 
of  the  thirteenth  century,  who  in  the  seventeenth 
century  persecuted  Galileo,  one  of  them  aiming 
at  him  a  sermon  founded  on  the  text:  "Ye  Gali- 
leans, why  stand  ye  gazing  up  into  heaven  ? "  Has 
not  the  Protestant  pulpit  often  denounced  science 
and  scientists  ?  Do  we  not  even  now  often  hear 
pulpiteers  launching  forth  their  anathemas  against 
the  conclusions  of  modern  science,  arraigning  by 
name,  Darwin,  Huxley,  Tyndall,  and  others, 
showing,  by  the  very  arraignments  made,  a  la- 
mentable want  of  acquaintance  with  the  conclu- 
sions assailed,  and  still  more  of  the  processes  by 


52  CONNECTION  OF  PREACHING    WITH 

which  the  conclusions  have  been  reached?  All 
this  is  true;  and,  true,  because  preachers  have  often 
either  forgotten  what  their  real  function  is,  or,  which 
is  more  commonly  the  case,  have  derived  their 
knowledge  of  the  views  assailed  from  second  or 
third  hand  sources,  and  so  have  assailed  the  bug- 
bears of  their  own  imaginations.  If  men  who 
assay  to  teach  from  the  pulpit  would  be  wise 
enough  to  let  alone  the  questions  of  science  which 
they  are  not  competent  to  handle;  would  abstain 
from  anathemas  which  only  strengthen  the  pre- 
judices of  the  ignorant  and  sacrifice  the  respect 
of  the  intelligent,  the  pulpit  might,  as  it  always 
should,  be  the  foremost  agency  in  all  healthy  and 
continuous  progress. 

But  here  let  us  not  forget  on  the  other  hand 
that  it  is  an  error  into  which  too  many  have  fallen 
to  suppose  that  the  Christian  religion  is  merely  a 
system  of  dogmatic  truths,  all  of  which  can  be 
resolved  into  a  sharply  defined  creed;  and  that 
the  office  of  the  preacher  is  to  limit  himself  rigidly 
to  the  dogmas  of  his  Church  or  sect.  The  Bible 
is  too  broad  a  book  to  be  cramped  within  the 
limits  of  a  creed,  whether  it  be  Nicene,  Atha- 
nasian,  or  Westminster,  or  any  one  of  the  hundreds 
of  others  of  an  earlier  or  a  later  date.  The  Bible  is 
a  book  of  facts,  and  of  ethical  and  religious  truths 
representative  of  the  nature  and  will  of  the  infinite 
God,  and  of  the  infinite  God  in  his  relations  to  a 
race  that  is  capable  of  endless  progress.  On  the 
ethical  and  religious  principles  and  truths  of  the 
Bible,  Christianity  can  rest  its  claims  to  univer- 
sal acceptance  and  authority.  And  in  the  final 
great  struggle  between  the  Christian  religion  and 


THE  PROGRESS  OF  CHRISTIAN  NATIONS.      53 

all  false  religions,  now  so  close  at  hand,  that  one 
of  them  will  prevail  which  can  do  the  most  and 
the  best  for  mankind. 

We  might  here,  in  conclusion,  dwell  on  what  is 
the  manifest  opportunity  for  the  pulpit  in  our  own 
land  and  time;  its  power  to  carry  the  nation  on- 
ward from  the  point  it  has  now  reached.  It  is  a 
most  inspiring  subject  to  contemplate:  enough  to 
set  the  heart  of  any  young  man,  who  is  looking 
out  into  the  future,  aflame;  to  transport  and  lift 
him  up  with  an  ambition  loftier  than  any  other  that 
now  can  fill  the  heart  of  the  aspiring;  he  is  invited 
to  be  one  of  those  who  shall  guide  the  nation  on- 
ward in  that  great  career  now  lying  before  it,  a 
career  which  only  the  Omniscient  God  can  foresee 
and  comprehend,  and  in  which  alone  the  Gospel 
of  Christ  can  guide  it  in  safety. 


LECTURE   III. 

RELATION    OF    PREACHING    TO    FREE 
INSTITUTIONS. 

At  the  dawn  of  history,  the  king  and  the  priest 
are  found  standing  side  by  side.  Sometimes  the 
king  and  the  high-priest  are  one  and  the  same 
person.  Civil  government  and  religion  first  make 
their  appearance  as  leaning  on  each  other  for 
mutual  support.  It  was  natural,  therefore,  that 
Moses  should  summon  Aaron  to  his  aid  as  High 
Priest;  in  so  doing,  he  simply  complied  with 
established  and  universal  usage.  So  when,  many 
centuries  afterwards,  Constantine  made  Christi- 
anity the  State  religion,  he  did  but  place  himself 
in  line  with  all  the  kings  and  emperors  that  had 
preceded  him.  And  when  still  later,  there  was 
the  completely  organized  Holy  Roman  Empire, 
we  find  that  the  Church  and  the  State  were  so 
united  as  to  appear  to  be  indissolubly  one.  And 
if  we  pass  to  the  history  that  more  immediately 
concerns  ourselves,  we  find  that  when  Henry 
the  Eighth  of  England  broke  with  Rome,  it  was 
not  to  place  the  State  and  Religion  on  independ- 
ent bases,  but  to  take  to  himself  supremacy  in 
both    and  to  become  head  of  the  Church  as  well 


PREACHING  AND  FREE  INSTITUTIONS.        55 

as  of  the  State.  And  from  that  time  onward, 
in  one  form  or  another,  all  English  history  pre- 
sents the  Church  and  the  State  in  some  kind  of 
conjunction. 

Various  have  been  the  theories  of  this  union 
which  its  advocates  have  propounded.  At  one 
time,  it  has  been  the  theory  acted  on  by  Henry, 
and  which  oddly  enough  has  since  been  called 
the  Erastian,  that  the  government  of  the  Church 
should  be  wholly  in  the  hands  of  the  State;  at 
another,  it  has  been  the  Warburtonian  theory 
of  an  alliance  between  two  independent  bodies 
and  a  relation  of  mutual  helpfulness;  and  then 
again,  it  has  been  the  theory  of  identity,  hinted 
at  by  Hooker  and  earnestly  advocated  by 
Arnold  of  Rugby;  a  theory  founded  on  the 
conception  of  a  comprehensive  Christian  polity  in 
which  the  State  and  the  Church  should  be  indi- 
visibly  one  in  purpose  and  government  and  in 
which  to  be  a  citizen  or  subject  is  also  to  be  a 
member  of  the  Church.  And  even  with  the 
Puritans,  it  was  not  so  much  separation  of  State 
and  Church,  and  the  absolute  independency  of 
each,  that  they  demanded,  and  to  establish  which 
they  fled  to  America,  as  it  was  separation  of  the 
State  from  the  then  existing  Church,  and  their 
release  from  conformity  to  it.  And  the  views 
of  the  Puritans  in  England  they  brought  with  them 
to  America.  Nothmg  was  farther  from  the  minds 
of  the  Colonists,  whether  at  Jamestown  or  at  Ply- 
mouth or  at  Boston,  than  a  separation  of  Church  and 
State.  In  the  Massachusetts  colony,  a  man  was 
obliged  to  be  a  member  of  the  Church  in  order  to 
be  a  citizen;  and  to  be  a  member  of  the  Church, 


56  RELATION   OF  PREACHING    TO 

he  must  have  the  consent  of  the  clergy.  The 
clergy  were  the  rulers  of  both  the  Church  and 
the  State.  How  little  did  they  dream  of  what 
is  now  a  first  principle  in  our  national  Constitution; 
of  what  has  now  for  more  than  a  century  had 
full  and  fair  trial;  namely,  that  the  State  and  the 
Church  stand,  each  on  its  own  basis;  that  each 
is  independent  of  the  other;  and  yet  each  sustains 
to  the  other  a  most  intimate  and  inseparable 
relation  !  It  has  seemed  fitting,  therefore,  that 
the  subject  of  one  of  these  lectures  should  be: 
The  Relation  of  the  Pulpit  to  Civil  Government 
in  these  United  States. 

It  is  a  relation  which  has  never  ceased  to  puz- 
zle and  to  pain  the  advocates  of  Church  estab- 
lishments; a  relation  about  which  the  defenders 
of  State  Churches  and  the  hierarchies  of  all 
churches  have  always  prophesied  evil;  but  a  re- 
lation from  which  European  statesmen  in  these 
latter  days  are  beginning  to  learn  lessons  to 
which  their  predecessors  were  willfully  blind;  a 
relation  in  which  Religion  asks  simply  to  be  let 
alone,  and  the  State  rigidly  restricts  itself  to  the 
management  of  its  own  affairs.  Such  is  the  re- 
lation of  Religion  and  Government  in  this  land, 
a  relation  of  independence  and  yet  of  mutual 
helpfulness.  But,  in  order  that  we  may  deter- 
mine what  the  pulpit  ought  to  do  for  a  self-gov- 
erning people,  let  us  first  inquire,  what  is  the 
attitude  of  the  Christian  Religion  towards  all 
government,  and  what  preaching  has  actually 
done  towards  procuring  for  us  the  government 
under  which  we  are  now  living. 

Christianity  in  its  historical  records  avows  no 


FREE    INSTITUTIONS.  57 

preference  for  any  special  form  of  civil  govern- 
ment.    The  words  of  our  Lord  when  tempted  oi 
this  point  were:  "  Render  unto  Caesar  the  thin 
which  are  Caesar's,  and  unto  God  the  things  ti. 
are  God's."     The  Apostle  Paul  distinctly  declai 
that,  "the  powers  that  be  are  ordained  of  Gou. 
The  Apostle   Peter  says:   "Yield  yourselves  in 
obedience  to  all  the  ordinances  of  men,  whether 
it  be  unto  the  king  as  supreme,  or  unto  gover- 
nors as  sent  by  him  for  the  punishment  of  evil- 
doers and  for  the  praise  of  them  that  do  well." 
And  yet  nothing,  I  think,  to  any  attentive  reader 
of  the  New  Testament  is  more  plainly  evident 
than  that  the  whole  tendency  of  the  Christian 
Religion   is   towards    that    form    of  government 
known  as  republican. 

That  this  is  the  tendency  of  Christianity  may 
be  seen  in  the  briefest  possible  glance  at  two  or 
three  of  its  simplest  principles.  First,  its  method 
of  individualization,  referred  to  in  our  last  lecture, 
awakens  in  every  one,  even  in  its  most  elemen- 
tary addresses,  a  sense  of  his  own  personality 
and  of  his  personal  obligations.  It  appeals  di- 
rectly to  every  individual  conscience.  Every  one 
thus  addressed  is  aroused  to  reflection.  A  na- 
tion thus  aroused  is  already  on  the  high  road 
towards  self-government  and  a  republic. — Again, 
most  clearly  and  profoundly  does  Christianity 
recognize  the  sacredness  of  the  right  of  the  in- 
dividual person;  and  everywhere  in  the  New  Tes- 
tament, from  the  first  teachings  of  our  Lord  down 
to  the  last  utterance  of  the  apostles,  is  the  avowal 
that  "  one  is  your  Master  and  all  ye  are  brethren." 
The  sacredness  of  all  that  belongs  to  the  lowliest 


68  RELATION   OF  PREACHING    TO 

and  the  weakest,  as  well  as  to  the  highest  and  the 
strongest,  is  distinctly  recognized. — And  so,  again, 
Christianity  in  its  final  judgment  of  men  places 
them  all  on  a  common  level.  The  rich  and  the  poor, 
the  master  and  his  slave,  the  king  and  his  sub- 
ject, all  meet  together.  The  only  difference  among 
them,  in  the  eye  of  the  Supreme  Judge,  is  the  dif- 
ference in  their  moral  characters.  A  religion  whose 
principles  are  only  these — to  enumerate  no  more — 
is  a  religion  that  must  lift  men  up  to  a  recognition 
of  the  brotherhood  of  mankind,  and  of  the  right  of 
the  individual  to  a  disposal  of  himself  as  well  as  of 
his  own  time  and  property,  and  above  all,  of  the 
right  to  obey  the  dictates  of  his  own  conscience. 

Christianity,  however,  as  it  has  existed  among 
men,  has  not  always  thus  fostered  personal  rights, 
or  led  on  to  governments  that  protected  the 
rights  of  all.  As  presented  in  a  church,  the 
offices  and  government  of  which  were  usurped  by 
a  hierarchy,  it  has  been  the  supporter  of  absolu- 
tism. Well  and  pithily  was  this  view  of  Christi- 
anity expressed  in  the  saying  so  common  in  the 
later  reigns  of  the  Stuarts  in  England:  "No 
bishop,  no  church;  no  church,  no  king."  Thus 
the  church  was  made  the  willing  servant  of  the 
king.  The  religion  which  alone  could  effectually 
overthrow  tyranny  was  prostituted  to  its  support. 
The  religion  of  Jesus  was  degraded  by  its  professed 
representatives  to  ends  the  very  opposite  of  those 
which,  left  to  its  own  natural  working,  it  was 
sure  in  due  time  to  accomplish. 

But  some  one  may  here  ask:  "What  are  the 
actual  evidences,  from  history  that  the  Christian 
pulpit  has  been  thus  serviceable  in  humanizing 


FREE   INSTITUTIONS.  69 

and  liberalizing  the  governments  of  men;  that  it 
has  contributed  directly  to  the  creation  and  diffu- 
sion of  the  ideas  and  spirit  of  national  self-gov- 
ernment ? "  Let  us  glance  for  a  moment  at  a  bit 
of  English  history. 

The  civil  liberties  of  Englishmen  are  often 
ascribed  directly  and  alone  to  Magna  Charta. 
They  were  wrung,  it  is  said,  by  the  barons  from 
King  John  at  Runnymede.  Doubtless  Magna 
Charta  did  embody  in  elementary  form  some  of 
the  principles  which  to-day  make  up  the  civil 
liberty  of  England.  But  what  the  barons  claimed 
and  really  obtained  in  that  great  contest,  were 
immunities  for  themselves,  and  not  liberty  for 
the  common  people.  Whatever  was  additional 
to  the  claims  made  for  themselves,  was  incidental 
and  intended  merely  to  further  their  own  ends. 
Thus  a  few  special  concessions  to  the  clergy  were 
wrested  from  the  king;  and  for  what  reason } 
Simply  because  the  barons  knew  full  well,  that 
against  them  stood  Pope  Innocent  III.  just  as 
decisively  and  unrelentingly  their  opponent,  as 
was  King  John.  They  wished  to  conciliate  the 
clergy,  and  therefore  wrung  from  the  king  certain 
privileges  which  they  flung  to  the  clergy  as  baits 
and  bribes  to  be  on  their  side.  So  also  among 
the  commonalty  were  a  few  wealthy  freemen  of 
whom  it  was  for  the  interest  of  the  barons  to 
make  friends.  For  these  a  few  blind  concessions 
were  obtained,  but  fortunately  they  were  con- 
cessions involving  incomparably  more  than  either 
king  or  baron  suspected.  The  barons  were  feudal 
lords,  who  had  no  inducements  to  provide  for  the 
elevation    of  their   vassals   and   retainers.      For 


60  RELATION   OF  PREACHING    TO 

these  the  Great  Charter  made  no  intentional 
provisions.  Long  after  its  provisions  were  in  full 
force,  the  vassals  were  still  in  their  thatch -roofed 
and  earth-floored  cottages,  at  the  foot  of  the  hill 
on  which  stood  the  castle;  and  if  perchance,  on 
some  great  holiday,  they  were  permitted  to  ascend 
the  hill  and  enter  its  halls,  it  was  a  boon  for  which 
they  were  duly  but  cringingly  thankful.  And  if, 
in  the  peril  of  the  castle,  they  were  permitted  to 
come  and  lie  in  the  straw  of  the  outer  hall,  it  was 
something  for  which  they  did  not  fail  to  show 
themselves  humbly  grateful.  So  far  as  pertained 
to  their  real  condition  and  relation  to  the  barons, 
they  still  were  vassals,  ready  to  be  ridden  over 
and  trodden  on  as  the  whim  of  their  lords  should 
require.  Not  till  three  long  centuries  after  the 
concessions  at  Runnymede,  did  they  begin  to 
get  fairly  upon  their  feet;  not  till  the  Reformation 
had  begun  to  do  its  work,  and  the  preachers  of 
God's  word,  earnest  in  purpose  and  eager  to 
reach  and  to  teach  all  the  people,  had  summoned 
them  to  arise  and  walk.  Then  began  that  grand 
uprisal  of  the  commonalty,  which  secured  them 
recognition  in  the  English  constitution;  then  was 
born  the  self-respect  which  took  the  place  of  the 
spirit  of  slaves  and  retainers;  then  came  into 
being  that  feeling  of  brotherhood  which  has 
made  the  lowliest  of  the  nation  proud  to  be  called 
Englishmen.  Then  began  that  change  in  the 
English  government,  which  has  finally  made  it 
in  every  essential  particular  a  republican  govern- 
ment. With  Kingship  and  Queenship  nominal 
only,  it  is  the  English  Parliament,  or  rather  the 
House  of  Commons  elected  by  popular  suffrage, 


FREE    INSTITUTIONS.  61 

that  to-day  rules  the  English  nation.  England 
herself  is  practically  a  great  Republic,  though 
her  Queen  be  styled  an  Empress;  and  who  have 
made  it  such  ?  Simply  the  preachers  of  the 
righteousness  of  the  gospel  of  Christ, — the  Puri- 
tan pulpit  at  the  first,  and  then  the  dissenters, 
who  as  successors  of  the  Puritans,  have  gone 
everywhere,  preaching  the  gospel  to  all  classes, 
carrying  Christian  knowledge  into  all  walks  and 
homes,  into  the  lowliest  hovel  and  the  proudest 
castle.  To  be  an  Englishman  to-day  is  to  be  a 
freeman,  and  to  be  assured  of  the  protection  of 
his  rights  by  the  whole  force  of  the  Empire.  And 
to  the  Christian  Religion,  and  specifically  to  Chris- 
tian preaching  more  than  to  any  other  single 
agency,  should  the  credit  of  all  this  be  ascribed. 

Now  what  the  pulpit  thus  did  for  England,  it 
did  in  preparation  for  the  foundation  of  our 
American  Republic — a  Republic  of  which,  in  our 
perhaps  excusable  vanity,  we  sometimes  boast 
in  high-sounding  phrase.  It  is  a  Republic  that 
does  not  give  us,  perhaps,  a  government  which 
wise  men  can  call  perfect;  but  it  is  none  the  less  a 
government  for  which  we  have  abundant  reason 
to  be  profoundly  grateful.  And  never  let  us  for- 
get that  the  substructions  on  which  its  founda- 
tions rest,  were  planted  by  the  preaching  of  the 
gospel. 

Protestant  preaching  had  set  the  mind  of  all 
England  into  a  ferment.  Political  and  relig- 
ious rights  were  subjects  of  universal  discussion. 
Even  royalists  and  bigoted  churchmen  caught 
the  infection.  Colonists  carried  the  conflicting 
ideas  and  discussions  to  America.     The  leaders 


62  RELATION   OF  PREACHING    TO 

of  the  colony  in  Virginia  were  profound  in  their 
regard  for  King  James,  and  in  their  reverence 
for  the  EstabHshed  Church.  Their  settlement 
they  named  Jamestown,  and  the  river  on  whose 
banks  it  was  planted,  James  River.  With  their 
government,  which  at  the  first  was  anything 
but  free,  the  Church  was  placed  in  the  same 
alliance  as  in  England,  And  yet,  in  every 
changing  compact  of  the  Colonial  government, 
there  lurked  in  its  provisions  the  hidden  leaven 
they  had  brought  with  them,  which  was  sure  in 
time  to  work  itself  out  into  democracy. 

Pass  now  to  the  colonies  of  New  England. 
Here  at  their  very  outset  we  have  presented 
to  us  the  distinctly  marked  product  of  nearly 
a  century  of  English  preaching.  It  was  a  sharp 
and  varying  conflict  of  religious  ideas  that  had 
raged  in  England  between  the  time  of  Henry 
the  Eighth  and  the  embarkation  of  the  Plymouth 
colonists  in  1620.  But  it  was  a  conflict  in  which 
the  definite  ideas  of  the  New  Testament  were 
apprehended  with  an  ever-increasing  clearness. 
They  were  ideas  which  touched  first  of  all  the 
relation  of  the  individual  to  God,  and  then  his  re- 
lation to  his  fellowmen  and  the  State.  Some  of 
the  chief  of  these  ideas  were  embodied  in  that 
compact  of  the  pilgrims  in  the  Mayflower,  just 
prior  to  their  disembarkation  at  Plymouth.  They 
were  the  ideas  which,  in  the  end,  gave  to  New 
England  its  free  civil  government,  and  the  inde- 
pendence of  both  its  State  and  its  churches. 
And  so  also  in  the  compact  of  the  colonists  at 
Boston.  Mixed  as  were  their  notions,  at  the 
first,  of  the  relations  of  the  State  to  the  Church, 


FREE   INSTITUTIONS.  63 

and  subordinate  as  they  made  the  civil  to  the  ec- 
clesiastical authority,  they  nevertheless  held  prin- 
ciples both  religious  and  civil  which  were  sure 
to  bring  forth  what  in  due  time  came  to  pass. 
The  interval  between  1620  and  1776  is  a  most 
instructive  portion  of  New  England  history;  full 
of  lessons  on  the  question  of  the  relation  of  the 
pulpit  to  free  government  in  America.  We  might 
turn  aside  and  listen  to  faithful  pastors  as  they 
preached  Christ  and  him  crucified  in  obscure  par- 
ishes, and  show  how  effectually  they  prepared  the 
people  by  their  preaching  for  that  great  political 
revolution,  which  in  the  fullness  of  time  came  to 
them.  But  we  will  here  notice  those  more  pub- 
lic offices  which  the  pulpit  has  been  called  on  to 
perform.  In  1633,  began  those  "election  ser- 
mons" which,  after  two  and  a  half  centuries  con- 
tinuation, are  still  delivered  annually  before  the 
Massachusetts  Legislature.  I  know  of  few  kinds 
of  reading  less  inviting  than  that  of  old  sermons; 
and  yet  to  run  through  some  of  that  long  line  of 
election  sermons,  printed  and  bound  together,  as 
I  did  a  few  weeks  ago,  is  to  see  plainly  that  the 
American  people  did  not  stumble  ignorantly  in- 
to the  form  of  government  which  they  finally 
adopted,  and  did  not  adopt  it  without  under- 
standing what  would  be  requisite  to  give  it  per- 
manency. What  the  election  sermons  did  for 
the  legislators,  the  annual  fast-day  sermons  and 
thanksgiving-day  sermons  did  in  other  ways  for 
more  private  citizens  in  their  parish  churches. 
The  people  of  New  England,  therefore,  while 
ever  reminded  of  their  needs  as  sinners  and 
immortal   beings,   were   never   left  in  ignorance 


64  RELATION   OF  PREACHING    TO 

of  their  duties  as  citizens   and  as  members  of 
society. 

In  1750,  Jonathan  Mayhew,  a  young  man  then 
in  his  thirtieth  year,  preached  a  sermon  in  Bos- 
ton, which  not  only  roused  all  Massachusetts, 
but  reached  the  ears  of  all  the  other  colonies. 
It  was  "A  Discourse  concerning  unlimited  sub- 
mission and  non-resistance  to  the  Higher  Pow- 
ers, with  some  reflections  made  on  the  resistance 
to  King  Charles  I."  It  was  delivered  on  the  an- 
niversary of  the  ' '  martyrdom  "  of  Charles  I. ;  an  an- 
niversary then  provided  for  in  the  English  Prayer- 
book,  but  since  expunged  from  it.  The  discourse 
was  not  only  widely  read  in  this  country,  but 
found  its  way  across  the  Atlantic;  it  procured 
for  its  author  what  was  then  a  real,  though  now 
too  often  an  unmeaning,  honor;  the  University 
of  Aberdeen  conferred  on  him  the  degree  of  Doc- 
tor of  Divinity.  The  discourse  assailed  the  doc- 
trine of  the  divine  right  of  kings,  and  defended 
the  diviner  rights  of  conscience.  It  enunciated 
principles  that  then  were  novel  though  welcome, 
but  now  are  regarded  as  self-evident.  There 
were  twenty-six  years  for  those  principles  to  do 
their  work  in,  before  the  outbreak  of  the  war  of 
the  revolution;  and  the  work  was  well  done.  Nor 
were  other  discourses'wanting  that  treated  of  like 
questions  of  civil  liberty.  The  preachers  of  New 
England  by  long  and  faithful  teaching  had  pre- 
pared their  people  for  the  final  upheaval.  The 
desperate  struggle  which  eventuated  in  what  the 
world  now  calls  the  United  States  of  America 
was  entered  on  by  a  people  who  knew  their 
rights  and  dared  maintain  them. 


FREE    INSTITUTIONS.  65 

Nor  was  it  in  New  England  alone  that  the  pul- 
pit thus  prepared  the  way  for  the  introduction  of 
the  government  under  which  we  now  live.  A  like 
service  was  done  in  Virginia.  The  Established 
Church  there  had  fallen  into  indifference  to  the 
welfare  of  the  people,  temporal  and  spiritual,  re- 
ligious and  civil;  but  preachers  from  the  other 
states,  specially  New  England,  had  found  their 
way  to  Virginia,  and  spoken  with  plainness  and 
effect.  Among  them  were  some  of  the  most 
devout  and  faithful  heralds  of  the  gospel  that  ever 
blest  any  country.  And  these  men,  while  aiming 
to  save  the  souls  of  their  hearers,  did  not  fail  to 
remind  them  of  what  they  owed  to  themselves 
and  their  country,  as  well  as  to  their  God.  The 
patriotic  preaching  of  the  devout  and  eloquent 
Davies,  afterwards  President  of  Princeton  College, 
left  an  impress  that  still  remains.  A  host  of  others, 
equally  faithful  and  zealous,  but  less  known  than 
Davies,  among  whom  were  not  a  few  Baptists, 
preached  with  such  fervor  and  fidelity,  that  Jeffer- 
son, in  his  "  Notes  on  Virginia,"  a  book  long  ago 
out  of  print,  tells  us  that  in  1776,  two-thirds  of 
the  population  of  that  state  had  become  dissenters; 
and  he  might  have  added  that  not  a  few  of  them 
had  become  active  and  consistent  Christians. 
Dissenting  preaching  had  fitted  them  to  appreci- 
ate and  to  assert  the  sacredness  of  the  rights  of 
conscience.  They  were  prepared  to  maintain  the 
right  of  self-government;  and  when  the  hour  came 
for  striking  final  and  decisive  blows,  they  were 
ready  to  join  hands  with  their  fellow  colonists  of 
New  England.  The  pulpit  prepared  them  for  a 
successful  issue  in  that  great  struggle,  and  above 


66  RELATION   OF   PREACHING    TO 

all,  prepared  them  for  the  liberties  which  that 
issue  secured  to  them.  It  was  a  service  which  no 
historian  of  the  Republic  has  yet  over-estimated, 
which  (most  of  the  historians  by  no  means  suffi- 
ciently recognize.  ^ 

But  if  such  was  the  service  of  the  pulpit  in  pro- 
curing for  us  our  civil  liberties,  let  us  see  what  it  can 
do  in  the  way  of  protecting  and  perpetuating  them. 

Nothing  in  democracy  is  more  apparent  to  the 
observing  than  its  tendency  to  its  own  dissolution. 
Left  to  itself,  its  course  is  directly  towards  dis- 
harmony, disruption,  anarchy,  and  chaos.  Such 
was  the  tendency  and  ending  of  the  great  democ- 
racies of  the  past.  Such  was  the  fate  of  the  earli- 
est and  most  favored  of  the  democracies  of  which 
we  have  any  trustworthy  records,  the  theocratic 
democracy  of  the  Jews.  What  sadder  or  more 
instructive  history  is  anywhere  to  be  found  than 
that  of  the  Jewish  democracy  as  recorded  in  the 
Book  of  Judges.  It  was  a  state  of  society  in  which, 
in  the  simple  language  of  the  historian,  "  every 
man  did  that  which  was  right  in  his  own  eyes," 
and,  judging  from  the  narrative,  what  every  one 
regarded  as  right  was  pretty  certain  to  be 
wrong.  A  government  intended  to  be  benefi- 
cent and  just  came  to  a  calamitous  end,  and  a 
monarchy  was  planted  on  its  ruins.  The  fierce 
democracies  of  Greece  and  Rome  ran  their  wild 
careers,  ending  in  disorder,  convulsion,  and  an- 
archy, and  furnishing  not  only  a  basis  and  justifi- 
cation, but  a  necessity,  for  despotisms. 

And  it  is  natural  that  without  the  safeguards 
of  morality  and  religion  such  should  be  the  course 
and  ending  of  a  democracy.     It  furnishes  a  state 


FREE   INSTITUTIONS.  67 

of  society  in  which  the  worst  elements  are  almost 
certain  to  come  to  the  surface.  The  meanest  are 
encouraged  to  regard  themselves  as  not  only  the 
fellow-citizens,  but  the  equals  of  the  best.  Under 
our  own  government,  whicU  gives  citizenship  and 
the  suffrage  to  the  refuse  of  other  nations,  this 
assumption  of  equality,  without  an  element  of  pre- 
paration for  it,  is  at  once  humiliating  and  omi- 
nous. Fugitives  from  justice,  outlaws  and  com- 
munists, assailants  of  everything  established  and 
good,  no  sooner  set  foot  on  our  shores  than  they 
assume  an  equality  with  the  best  citizens  of  the 
Republic.  The  Irishman  that  in  Ireland  cringes  in 
humblest  reverence  in  the  presence  of  his  superiors, 
receiving  the  smallest  of  favors  with  expletives  of 
thankfulness,  no  sooner  finds  himself  an  American 
citizen  than  he  wants  his  fellow-citizen  Pat  to  be 
Chairman  of  the  primary  meeting,  his  fellow-citi- 
zen Mike  its  Secretary,  and  himself  to  be  "  Boss" 
for  the  party  of  the  city  in  which  he  deigns  to 
reside.  Demagogues  are  the  natural  spawn  of  a 
pure  democracy;  the  spirit  that  generates  them 
is  ripest  in  the  lowest  walks  of  society.  The  poor 
African  hardly  finds  the  shackles  stricken  from 
his  limbs  before  he  transforms  reverential ' '  Massa  " 
into  the  half-contemptuous  "  Boss."  Even  in 
France,  the  blouse  that  a  century  ago  would  have 
left  the  sidewalk  for  the  gutter,  with  hat  in  hand, 
now  crowds  for  the  inner  side  of  the  walk,  whether 
he  meet  an  ecclesiastical  dignitary,  or  it  may 
be  the  President  of  the  Republic.  The  very  at- 
mosphere of  democracy  seems  to  inflate  every 
vulgar  mind  with  a  sense  of  its  own  importance. 
But  that  which  most  of  all.  in  our  American 


G8  RELATION   OF  PREACHING    TO 

life,  should  awaken  apprehension  in  the  breast  of 
the  thoughtful  is  the  growing  irreverence  of  youth 
for  age,  and  specially  of  children  for  their  parents. 
The  one  commandment  of  the  decalogue  that  is 
accompanied  with  the  promise  of  long  continu- 
ance in  the  land,  is  the  one  now  most  conspicu- 
ously disregarded  among  us.  But  a  moral  law 
that,  like  this,  lies  at  the  very  foundations  of 
society,  cannot  long  be  violated  without  the 
social  and  moral  and  political  disasters  that  des- 
potism alone  can  repair. 

What  now  can  the  pulpit  do  for  us  in  averting 
the  evils  with  which  we  are  threatened  .■'  If  the 
gospel  leads  to  Republicanism,  and  Republican- 
ism as  pure  democracy  tends  always  to  anarchy, 
can  the  preaching  of  the  gospel  help  us .-'  We 
answer:  It  can  help  us  if  preached  in  its  complete- 
ness; if  unfolded  with  all  the  comprehensiveness 
with  which  it  is  presented  in  the  New  Testament 
Scriptures.  An  incomplete  gospel  may  save  a 
man  from  final  perdition,  though  it  may  leave 
him  to  struggle  through  a  thousand  ills  from 
which  it  might  and  ought  to  have  relieved  him. 
It  may  save  individuals  and  leave  nations  to  de- 
cay, and  governments  to  be  overthrown,  and  whole 
generations  to  a  loss  of  both  this  world  and  the 
next.  In  what  respects,  then,  if  any,  can  the 
existing  popular  conceptions  of  Christianity  and 
the  preaching  of  it  be  made  more  complete  .-' 

First,  the  pulpit  ought,  it  seems  to  me,  to 
teach  more  distinctly,  more  earnestly,  more  un- 
compromisingly, and  more  continuously  than  it 
is  now  doing,  the  duty  of  unswerving  obedience 
to  all  rightly  constituted  authority  and  specially 


FREE   INSTITUTIONS.  69 

to  all  moral  law.  The  tendency  of  the  popular 
Christianity  of  our  time  is  to  a  forgetfulness  of 
law.  In  the  anxiety  of  many  preachers  to  make 
the  way  of  salvation  plain  and  easy  and  assured, 
they  overstate  the  extent  of  the  gratuity  of  it. 
They  so  represent  the  efficacy  of  what  Christ  has 
wrought  for  us,  as  to  leave  the  impression  that 
it  covers  the  whole  range  of  our  obligations;  that 
nothing  remains  for  the  believer  to  do,  but  sim- 
ply to  accept  salvation,  and  thenceforward  do 
nothing  more  than  rejoice  in  it  as  a  free  gift. 
This  has  been  the  fault  of  too  many  of  our  pop- 
ular evangelists.  They  have  fallen  into  it  from 
a  very  natural  desire  to  bring  their  labors  to 
immediate  fruitage.  One  of  the  most  popular 
of  these  tells  his  audiences  that  he  is  wearied 
and  out  of  patience  with  endless  repetitions  of 
do,  do,  do;  why,  says  he,  all  Christianity  is 
summed  up  in  five  letters,  t-r-u-s-t;  the  whole 
Christian  religion  is  reducible  to  the  single  word, 
faith.  With  such  persons,  the  lines,  "Jesus  paid 
it  all,"  and  other  similar  so-called  hymns,  have 
a  surprising  popularity,  and  on  the  unreflecting 
a  dangerously  misleading  influence. 

If  now  this  representation  of  the  gospel  be 
made  to  those  who  are  anxiously  asking  what 
they  must  do  to  be  saved,  the  representation  is 
both  proper  and  just.  To  be  saved,  one  has  sim-' 
ply  to  trust;  but  in  trusting  Christ  and  in  accept- 
ing a  free  salvation,  there  is  also  an  assumption 
of  all  the  countless  duties  and  obligations  which 
that  acceptance  implies.  And  if  any  unreflecting 
pastor  is  weak  enough  to  attempt  a  continuous  im- 
itation of  evangelist  methods  of  preaching,  no  pro- 


70  RELATION   OF  PREACHING    TO 

phet  will  be  needed  to  foretell  what  in  due  time  he 
must  expect.  The  truth  is,  that  in  accepting  the 
free  salvation  of  Christ,  one  accepts  also  the  yoke 
of  Christ.  To  believe  in  him,  is  to  have  fellow- 
ship with  him;  and  fellowship  with  him  in  his 
offices  for  man  as  well  as  in  his  free  gifts  to  our- 
selves. To  believe  in  him,  is  to  pledge  ourselves 
to  do  with  redoubled  zeal  and  energy  all  the 
duties  of  life;  and  to  do  them  for  his  sake  and 
because  we  are  his  disciples.  And  the  doing  is 
to  consist  not  merely  in  abstinence  from  wrong 
doing,  but  also  in  untiring  endeavors  by  every 
species  of  well-doing  to  bring  our  whole  natures 
into  conformity  to  his  will;  is  to  consist,  not 
merely  in  words  of  prayer  and  praise  and  exhor- 
tation, but  in  the  upbuilding  of  personal  character 
that  shall  proclaim  the  efficacy  of  the  gospel  with 
a  more  than  human  eloquence.  Christian  charac- 
ter shows  itself  in  innumerable  lights,  and  never 
in  more  than  in  our  day;  and  every  aspect  of  it 
speaks  of  the  religion  of  Jesus.  To  each  of  these 
the  pulpit  should  give  its  attention.  And  if  the 
pulpit  is  to  do  its  whole  work,  and  to  do  it  ef- 
fectually, it  must  sharpen  its  vision  and  widen  its 
horizon.  It  must  deal  with  men,  women,  and 
children  in  all  their  numberless  relations  to  one 
another  in  a  common  life.  It  must  observe  the 
thousand  angles  at  which  every  individual  now 
touches  society.  It  must  deal  with  him  as  a 
man,  as  a  husband,  a  father,  a  neighbor;  as  one 
who  buys  and  sells;  as  a  citizen  and  a  voter;  as  one 
who  every  hour  of  his  life  has  duties  which  he  can- 
not neglect  without  peril  to  his  own  soul,  without 
injury  to  mankind,  and  without  dishonor  to  God. 


FREE    INSTITUTIONS.  71 

The  pulpit  furthermore  needs  to  teach  men  the 
true  relation  of  freedom  to  obedience, — of  liberty 
to  law.  On  this  point,  there  is  no  little  confusion 
in  the  popular  mind.  There  is  reason  to  fear 
that  it  is  not  altogether  clear  in  the  minds  of 
some  religious  teachers.  Endlessly  are  our  ears 
saluted  with  the  declaration  that  the  gospel  gives 
freedom.  And  it  does  give  it.  But  what  is  free- 
dom .''  Certainly  it  is  not  license.  Analyze  it. 
Of  what  does  it  consist }  Can  any  man  be  a 
freeman  who  is  not  consciously,  sedulously,  and 
devotedly  obedient  to  all  just  law }  What  is  moral 
freedom,  if  it  be  not  the  harmonious  working  of 
all  the  powers  of  one's  nature  .''  And  what  pray 
is  moral  slavery,  if  it  be  not  the  state  of  him 
whose  conscience  dictates  one  thing,  while  his 
moral  tastes  and  his  will  are  insisting  on  another.'' 
No  bondage  is  so  pitiful  and  grinding  as  his  whose 
conscience  and  will  are  in  perpetual  conflict.  Of 
this  bondage,  the  seventh  chapter  of  the  Epistle 
to  the  Romans,  is  a  most  graphic  picture;  a  pic- 
ture which  every  man  acquainted  with  his  own 
heart  recognizes  as  too  truthfully  descriptive  of 
himself  not  to  have  been  drawn  by  a  more  than 
human  pen.  On  the  other  hand,  no  man  is  so 
free  as  he  in  whom  every  power  of  his  being  is 
co-operating  to  hold  him  in  strictest  obedience 
to  moral  law.  The  infinite  God  is  the  freest 
being  in  the  universe,  and  yet  he  is  infinitely 
bound  by  the  laws  of  his  own  nature.  He  is  in- 
finitely free,  and  yet  infinitely  necessitated  to  do 
right.  He  is  absolutely  free,  because  it  is  abso- 
lutely impossible  for  him  to  do  wrong.  Our  free- 
dom will  resemble  his  just  in  proportion  as  our 


72  RELATION   OF  PREACHING    TO 

whole  moral  nature  is  brought  into  conformity 
to  his  law. 

And  as  with  the  individual,  so  also  with  the 
community  and  with  the  State.  The  most  per- 
fect civil  liberty  is  where  all  just  law  is  most 
punctiliously  obeyed  by  every  member  of  the 
community.  Did  the  sun  ever  shine  on  a  freer 
community  than  a  century  ago  was  presented  in 
the  New  England  town  where  three  select-men 
were  intrusted  with  the  superintendence  of  all  its 
public  affairs  "i  Prisons  empty,  sheriffs  without 
employment,  a  community  that  needed  no  bolted 
door,  nor  barred  windows;  property  and  life  per- 
fectly safe ;  and  why  .<*  Simply  because  every 
man,  woman,  and  child,  religiously  instructed, 
was  conscientiously  obedient  to  law.  No  com- 
munity on  earth  was  ever  freer,  and  no  civil  free- 
dom was  ever  more  entirely  the  product  of  obe- 
dience to  law.  If  the  pulpit  in  our  land  and  day 
is  to  perform  its  whole  office,  whether  for  individ- 
uals, or  for  communities,  or  for  the  nation,  it 
must  make  clear  to  the  consciences  of  all,  the  in- 
dissoluble connection  of  moral  freedom  with  moral 
obedience;  and  the  absolute  dependence  of  civil 
liberty  on  an  unyielding  regard  for  all  just  law. 

Again,  the  pulpit  in  this  country  ought  to  take 
special  pains  to  make  clear  to  men  the  true  ground 
of  all  real  authority.  On  this  point,  the  popular 
mind  is  in  great  danger  of  becoming  mystified. 
The  feeling  has  been  rapidly  growing  of  late, 
that  authority  cannot  safely  be  trusted  to  rest  on 
a  bare  basis  of  truth  and  right,  but  must  be  but-* 
tressed  by  traditions,  and  propped  by  arguments 
from  utility.     Some  have  reasoned  that  both  cc- 


FREE    INSTITUTIONS.  73 

clesiastical  and  civil  governments  should  have 
some  other  foundation  to  rest  on  than  that  of  mere 
truth.  Church  independency  and  church  disci- 
pline, resting  on  truth  alone,  are  regarded  as 
unsafe.  As  if  government  could  ever  be  admin- 
istered, or  penalty,  by  whomsoever  pronounced, 
could  ever  be  inflicted,  except  as  enforced  by 
a  law  which  is  seen  to  be  grounded  in  eternal 
right.     Men  forget  that  while 

Bodies  fall  by  wild  sword  law, 

He  who  would  force  the  soul,  tilts  with  a  straw 

Against  a  champion  cased  in  adamant. 

If  the  individual  is  to  be  controlled,  he  must  be 
made  to  see  that  the  law  which  controls  him  has 
its  ground,  not  in  tradition,  nor  in  factitious  au- 
thority, nor  in  opinion,  or  convenience,  or  utility 
— but  in  reality  and  right. 

And  what  is  found  to  be  true  of  the  ground  of 
authority  for  the  individual,  will  be  found  to  be 
equally  true  of  the  ground  of  authority  for  the 
State.  Deliberate  attempts  are  now  made  to  rest 
the  authority  of  all  civil  law  on  some  other  basis 
than  that  of  moral  truth  and  immutable  right, 
and  to  trust  in  the  diffusion  of  knowledge  rather 
than  in  moral  training  for  the  perpetuation  of  our 
free  institutions.  The  late  Dr.  J.  W.  Draper,  who 
made  some  very  astonishing  generalizations,  who 
indulged  in  dogmatism  outrivaling  that  of  any 
contemporary  theologian,  tells  us  in  his  "  Civil 
Polity  of  America,"  that  "in  Europe  the  attempt 
has  been  made  to  govern  communities  through 
their  morals  alone.  The  present  state  of  that 
continent  at  the  close  of  so  many  centuries,  shows 


74  RELATION   OF  PREACHING    TO 

how  great  the  failure  has  been.  In  America,  on 
the  contrary,  the  attempt  is  to  govern  through 
intelligence.  It  will  succeed."  But  was  there 
ever  a  government  on  earth  that  so  completely 
laid  its  foundations  in  moral  and  even  religious 
convictions,  as  this  Republic  of  America.^  And 
was  any  ever  so  dependent  for  preservation  in  its 
infancy  as  this  on  the  morals  of  the  governed  .'* 
And  what,  pray,  can  intelligence  do  for  us,  except 
as  it  helps  to  a  discernment  of  the  real  and 
the  true,  on  which  all  sound  morality  must  rest. 
Our  fathers  laid  a  sure  foundation,  because  they 
laid  it  intelligently  in  righteousness  and  truth. 
An  unintelligent  morality  would  have  been  a 
sandy  foundation;  unmoralized  intelligence  would 
have  reared  a  tottering  structure.  Unintelligent 
building  in  the  future  will  topple  a  structure  that 
was  both  well  founded  and  well  built.  Other 
Republics  have  failed  through  ignorance,  irre- 
ligion,  and  immorality,  the  three  enemies  to  lib- 
erty that  always  go  hand  in  hand.  We  will  not 
forget  the  dangers  that  ignorance  threatens: 

Nor  yet 
(Grave  this  within  the  heart),  if  spiritual  things 
Be  lost,  through  apathy,  or  scorn,  or  fear, 
Shall  we  our  humbler  franchises  support, 
However  hardly  won  or  justly  dear; 
What  came  from  heaven,  to  heaven  by  nature  clings, 
And  if  dissevered  thence  its  course  is  short. 

We  have  inherited  a  government  that  was 
founded  on  strong  moral  and  religious  convictions. 
It  will  endure  only  as  these  convictions  are  kept 
fresh  in  the  popular  mind.  To  keep  them  fresh, 
there  must  be  growing  intelligence.  To  guide 
the  intelligence  there  must  be  enlightened  con- 


FREE   INSTITUTIONS.  75 

science;  to  enlighten  conscience  there  must  be 
an  intelHgent  pulpit.  The  pulpit  must  make  it 
plain,  that  the  laws  which  bind  us  to  God  and  to 
one  another,  are  only  eternal  truths  reduced  to 
precepts.  They  who  occupy  the  pulpit  must  strike 
directly  for  the  consciences  of  men,  with  all  the 
vigor  of  those  who  know  that  they  are  messengers 
of  the  Omniscient  and  the  Almighty. 

But  here  some  one  may  ask,  Does  not  the  lec- 
turer in  what  he  has  been  saying,  propose  to  turn 
aside  the  mind  of  the  preacher  from  the  distinc- 
tive work  of  saving  men  through  faith  in  Jesus 
Christ  .''  Has  he  not  forgotten  that  the  one  work 
of  the  minister  of  the  gospel  is  the  salvation  of 
sinners  }  By  no  means.  How  much  does  the 
work  of  the  minister  of  the  gospel  include  }  Is  it 
simply  to  convert  men — to  give  to  them  a  com- 
fortable hope  of  heaven  }  Is  it  not  rather  so  to 
save  them  as  to  bring  them  into  a  realization  of 
the  largest  possible  manhood  t  Is  it  merely  to 
save  here  and  there  individuals,  communities,  or 
to  Christianize  and  to  save  nations  }  There  is  an- 
other world  and  there  is  this  world.  It  is  possi- 
ble so  to  concentrate  attention  on  the  other 
world  as  to  lose  both  this  and  the  other;  just 
as  a  man  who  is  ever  star-gazing  may  stumble 
over  a  precipice  into  destruction.  He  who  is  al- 
ways looking  into  the  future  may  forget  that  his 
future  is  already  springing  out  of  the  present.  No 
one  has  any  right  to  expect  either  the  approval 
of  God,  or  an  admission  into  heaven,  who  has 
not,  in  this  world,  done  his  utmost  for  the  im- 
provement of  both  himself  and  others. 

I  am,  furthermore,  lecturing  to  those  who,  with 


76  RELATION   OF  PREACHING    TO 

few  exceptions,  are  expecting  to  be  pastors  of 
flocks,  stated  preachers  to  the  same  congregations 
through  successive  years.  You  will  preach  to 
churches  and  communities  who  will  look  to  you 
for  enlightenment  and  guidance  in  all  their  Chris- 
tian obligations.  You  are  to  preach  to  them 
salvation  through  Christ,  but  a  salvation  that 
makes  them  workers  together  with  God  in  every 
conceivable  kind  of  praiseworthy  action. 

You  are  also  to  be  a  part  of  that  great  brother- 
hood of  American  ministers  of  the  gospel,  to 
whom  have  been  committed  trusts  such  as  never 
before  fell  to  the  lot  of  any  clergy  of  any  land  or 
age.  Here,  in  the  vast  territory  of  America,  truth 
and  error,  good  and  evil,  Christ  and  his  foes, 
have  met,  without  let  or  hindrance  on  either 
side,  for  their  final  conflict.  In  this  conflict,  you 
have  been  summoned  to  participate.  Over  you 
is  a  government,  and  all  around  you  are  institu- 
tions, given  by  the  very  religion  that  has  called 
you  to  its  service.  The  continuance  of  this  gov- 
ernment and  these  institutions  will  depend  on  the 
public  conscience  which  it  will  be  your  duty  to 
enlighten  and  guide,  and  the  public  opinion  which 
it  will  be  your  duty  to  create  and  direct. 

If  you  are  wise  men,  you  will  never  meddle 
in  the  pulpit  with  mere  party  politics.  With  all 
moral  and  religious  questions,  whether  affecting 
the  state,  the  community,  social  organizations,  or 
individuals,  your  office  as  religious  teachers  re- 
quires you  to  deal,  and  to  deal  faithfully  and  fear- 
lessly. Should  politicians  for  base  ends  seek  to 
pervert  the  right,  or  to  debauch  the  public  con- 
science, it  would  be  moral  cowardice  not  to  warn 


FREE    INSTITUTIONS.  77 

the  people.  In  that  case,  politicians  would  med- 
dle with  the  functions  of  the  pulpit.  And  if  the 
pulpit  throughout  the  land  should  be  true  to  itself, 
the  right  would  prevail.  The  pulpit  would  then 
prove  itself  to  be,  what  by  right  it  is,  the  keeper 
of  the  keepers.  The  public  conscience  would  be 
saved  from  defilement,  the  nation  from  guilt,  and 
souls  from  perdition.  And  to  do  this,  one  need 
not  imitate  Nathaniel  Emmons  in  his  sermon  on 
Jeroboam, — a  sermon  aimed  at  Thomas  Jefferson, 
and  intended  to  prevent  his  election  to  the  presi- 
dency. Personalities,  however  covert,  are  al- 
ways a  breach  of  pulpit  propriety.  Fidelity  to 
truth  never  requires  them.  Truth  is  always  im- 
personal, and  because  impersonal  omnipotent.  In 
the  presence  of  its  majesty,  persons  sink  into  in- 
significance. Standing  in  the  shadow  of  it,  the 
preacher  may  preach  with  a  power,  before  which 
petty  politicians  and  would-be  dictators  melt  away 
like  frost  in  the  mid-day  sun.  Let  the  Christian 
minister  stand  up  in  the  fear  of  God,  mindful  of 
no  man's  politics  or  party,  of  no  man's  position, 
or  wealth  or  influence,  and  he  will  preach  with  a 
power  that  all  men  will  recognize,  and  no  one 
can  successfully  gainsay. 

When  it  comes  to  be  understood  that  the 
Christian  minister  has  an  imprescriptible  right 
to  preach  all  righteousness,  to  deal  with  all 
truth,  to  deal  with  all  law,  whether  law  of  the 
state,  of  the  community,  of  the  family,  or  of  the 
individual;  when  it  shall  be  understood  that  he  is 
bound,  by  all  the  solemnity  of  a  vow  to  God,  to 
preach  the  truth,  the  whole  truth,  and  nothing 
but  the  truth,  then  will  men  rise  to  some  degree 


78        PREACHING   AND   FREE  INSTITUTIONS. 

of  appreciation  of  the  dignity  of  his  office;  then 
will  he  be  accounted  a  true  minister  of  God;  then 
will  he  be  recognized  as  contributing  to  the 
stability  and  strength  of  all  just  government. 

And  if  our  Republic  was  worth  the  prayers  and 
the  tears  and  the  blood  that  it  cost  to  found  it; 
if  it  was  worth  the  prayers  and  the  tears  and  the 
treasures  and  the  blood  of  the  fathers  and  bro- 
thers who  twenty  years  ago  laid  down  their  lives 
to  perpetuate  it,  then  is  it  worth  while  for  the 
Christian  minister  so  to  preach  the  gospel  as  still 
to  preserve  it.  Here,  the  greatest  experiment  of 
all  time  is  now  being  tried,  an  experiment  that  is 
to  test  as  never  before  the  question  whether  a 
great  nation  can  be  trusted  to  govern  itself 
Here  has  God  put  it  into  the  power  of  Christian 
teachers,  as  never  before,  to  test  the  infinitely 
higher  question  whether  Christianity  is  equal  to 
all  the  wants  and  emergencies  of  nations  as  well 
as  of  individuals. 

You,  young  gentlemen,  if  faithful  in  your  call- 
ing, will  always  preach  Christ  and  him  crucified. 
In  every  discourse,  you  will  take  your  position  at 
the  foot  of  the  cross,  and  whatever  the  breadth 
of  your  vision,  or  the  circuit  of  your  thought,  will 
never  forget  that  it  is  the  crucified  and  risen 
Christ  whom  you  preach,  and  whose  right  it  is  to 
rule  the  world.  If  you  shall  so  preach,  then  may 
we  have  some  hope  that  the  souls  of  men  will  be 
saved,  and  at  the  same  time  that  what  our  fathers 
founded  in  Christian  hope  and  delivered  to  us 
with  such  tender  solicitude,  may  still  be  preserved, 
and  we  be  enabled  to  transfer  it  intact  to  those 
who  shall  come  after  us. 


LECTURE  IV. 

THE  WEAKENED   INFLUENCE   OF    THE  PULPIl 
AND   ITS   CAUSES. 

The  diminished  attendance  at  public  worship 
in  our  day  and  land,  as  compared  with  a  century 
ago,  or  even  with  a  period  within  the  memory  of 
living  men,  has  excited  universal  attention  and 
remark.  It  is  computed  that  nearly  two-thirds 
of  the  Protestant  population  of  this  country  now 
habitually  absent  themselves  from  the  Sunday 
church  services.  There  is  about  the  same  pro- 
portion of  absentees  in  England.  In  France 
and  Germany,  but  a  fraction  of  the  Protestant 
population  are  accustomed  to  attend  the  services 
of  the  sanctuary.  Our  attention,  in  what  we 
shall  say  on  the  pulpit's  loss  of  power,  will  be 
restricted  to  our  own  country. 

Many  and  varied  explanations  have  been  given 
of  this  great  change  of  regard  for  religious  services 
and  particularly  for  preaching.  One  finds  expla- 
nation in  one  cause,  another  in  another  and  a 
third  in  still  another.  But  no  one  cause  gives 
adequate  explanation.  Indeed,  many  and  even 
heterogeneous  forces  seem  by  strange  conjunction 
to  be  Avorking  together  to  divert  attention  from 
the  pulpit,  and   sometimes  to  alienate   entirely 


80  THE    WEAKENED   INFLUENCE    OF 

from  the  house  of  God.  Some  of  these  are  found 
in  the  state  of  the  public  mind,  some  in  the  new 
methods  of  diffusing  religious  knowledge,  and 
some  in  the  qualities  of  the  pulpit  itself  Let 
us  notice  a  few  of  them. 

First  of  all,  it  is  undeniable  that  there  exists  in 
our  day  a  wide-spread  spirit  of  doubt;  a  spirit  of 
what,  in  current  phraseology,  is  termed,  "  general 
skepticism."  I  do  not  say  atheism,  nor  even 
infidelity.  These  latter  terms  express  a  stronger 
and  more  decided  state  of  mind  than  is  meant  to 
be  conveyed  by  the  terms  doubt  and  skepticism. 
The  former  are  applicable  to  a  few;  the  latter 
describe  a  large  class.  It  may  be  questioned 
whether  atheism — theoretic  atheism — is  anything 
like  so  generally  prevalent  as  many  persons  are 
disposed  to  believe.  The  truth  rather  seems  to 
be,  that  the  belief  of  mankind  in  the  existence 
of  God — of  some  kind  of  supreme  Intelligence — 
was  never  stronger,  or  more  entitled  to  be  called 
universal,  than  it  is  to-day.  Never  were  the 
ethical  principles  of  the  New  Testament  more 
generally  accepted  and  put  in  practice  than  they 
now  are.  The  belief  in  the  immortality  of  man 
seems  to  be  as  universal  now  as  in  any  past  time. 
It  may  be  questioned  whether  there  is  any  more 
real  atheism  to-day  than  there  was  at  the  close  of 
the  last  century  or  at  the  beginning  of  the  present. 

But  there  is  doubt  as  to  the  authenticity  and 
divine  authority  of  the  Holy  Scriptures,  and  as  to 
the  justness  of  the  traditional  interpretations  of 
them.  There  is  distrust  of  the  truth  and  worth 
of  the  creeds  of  the  different  churches  and  sects. 
There  is  a  subtle  questioning  whether  the  systems 


THE    PULPIT  AND   ITS    CAUSES.  81 

of  doctrine,  and  the  theories  of  man  and  of  God 
and  their  relations,  that  have  been  current  among 
Protestants  for  the  past  three  hundred  years, 
ought  not  to  be  subjected  to  new  criticism,  or 
brought  into  new  forms  of  statement.  On  all 
these  points,  the  minds  of  many  are  unsettled 
and  drifting.  As  an  outgrowth  of  the  whole, 
there  is  looseness  of  view  as  to  what  is  binding  in 
private  life;  as  to  what  is  allowable  in  household 
and  social  amusements;  and  also  as  to  what  is 
proper  license  in  the  use  of  the  Sabbath  day.  To 
show  the  groundlessness  or  the  danger  of  these 
doubts,  and  distrusts,  and  questionings,  or  to  criti- 
cise the  growing  license  in  Christian  communities, 
is  no  part  of  my  present  purpose.  I  simply  state 
the  facts  as  having  some  bearing  on  the  question 
of  the  present  weakened  influence  of  the  pulpit. 

Now,  to  this  state  of  the  public  mind,  the  pul- 
pit has  not  as  yet  succeeded  in  completely  ad- 
justing itself.  What  it  can  do,  otherwise  than  it 
is  already  doing,  is  by  no  means  clear.  Whether 
it  can  so  deal  with  the  difficulties  of  doubters 
and  skeptics  as  to  induce  them  to  come  to 
church  and  hear  what  can  be  said  for  their 
relief,  is  a  question  not  easily  answered.  But 
it  is  evident  that  great  numbers,  giving  them- 
selves the  full  benefit  of  their  doubts,  are  in- 
different to  the  ordinary  preaching  of  the  gospel 
and  so  decline  to  frequent  the  house  of  God. 
To  say  that  these  persons  neither  believe  in 
Christianity  nor  in  God,  would  be  to  say  what 
may  not  be  true.  Many  of  them  doubtless  do 
believe  in  Christianity,  and  in  a  personal  Christ; 
but  their  doubts  have  eaten  out  all  sense  of  ob- 


82  THE    WEAKENED   INFLUENCE    OF 

ligation  to  listen  to  a  preaching  of  his  gospel. 
Not  a  few  men  of  skeptical  tendencies  spend 
their  Sundays  in  reading  skeptical  treatises. 
They  will  have  some  kind  of  mental  occupation 
and  moral  stimulus;  but  they  will  not  resort  for 
these  to  the  churches.  On  many  intelligent  per- 
sons the  pulpit  has  lost  its  hold;  they' no  longer 
look  to  it,  but  elsewhere,  for  enlightenment. 

This  last  remark  suggests  another  cause  now 
operating  to  withhold  from  attendance  on  pub- 
lic worship,  namely,  the  cheap  and  abundant 
literature  of  our  day.  The  time  was,  and  in 
this  country  not  long  ago,  when  even  a  toler- 
ably good  library  was  the  possession  of  only  a 
favored  few.  Now  the  press  teems  with  every 
species  of  production,  from  the  ponderous  and 
elaborate  treatise  down  to  the  lighter  reading  of 
the  magazine  and  the  newspaper;  and  of  the 
latter,  some  are  specially  intended  to  provide 
Sunday  reading.  Thus  the  library,  with  the 
magazines  and  the  newspapers,  are  made  rival 
competitors  with  the  pulpit  for  attention;  and 
with  reading  people,  they  too  often  become 
the  successful  rivals.  The  competition  is  also 
strengthened  and  widened  by  the  great  multi- 
plication of  cheap  Christian  literature.  When 
Bibles  were  so  extremely  rare  as  to  be  only  found 
chained  to  church  altars,  or  hidden  away  in  mon- 
asteries, people  were  dependent  for  their  religious 
knowledge  on  the  lips  of  the  living  teacher.  Even 
a  century  ago,  the  Bible  was  a  costly  and  not  over 
common  book.  Now  the  man  who  has  not  a  Bible 
in  his  house  is  poor  indeed.  Even  the  child  that 
is  able  to  read  is  expected  to  own  one. 


THE   PULPIT  AND   ITS    CAUSES.  83 

Christian  literature  for  popular  reading  is  the 
product  of  a  comparatively  recent  day.  Even 
living  men  can  remember  when  attractive  relig- 
ious books  were  extremely  rare.  The  pulpit  was 
not  long  ago  the  chief,  to  not  a  few  the  only, 
source  of  mental  stimulus  and  even  of  informa- 
tion. Now  Christian  literature  abounds.  Soci- 
eties are  organized  for  the  specific  purpose  of 
printing  and  circulating  it  in  every  possible  form. 
It  is  sold  where  it  can  be;  is  given  away  to  the 
needy;  even  the  poorest  and  most  ignorant  can 
have  it,  if  they  will  receive  it.  Religious  news- 
papers more  than  abound;  they  are  in  excess; 
and  many  of  them  regularly  contain  sermons  or 
parts  of  sermons  from  distinguished  preachers. 
What  wonder  is  it,  then,  that  the  very  means 
which  have  been  adopted  to  diffuse  a  knowledge 
of  Christianity,  and  to  interest  men  in  the  preach- 
ing of  the  gospel,  should  have  contributed  to 
keep  them  away  from  the  very  place  where  alone 
preaching  is  to  be  heard  .-' 

Let  us  step  for  a  moment,  on  a  Sunday  morn- 
ing, into  a  Christian  home.  We  find  a  Christian 
man,  wearied  with  the  cares  of  the  week,  sitting 
by  his  fireside.  Near  him,  rests  on  its  shelves  a 
well-selected  library.  On  his  table  lie  maga- 
zines and  newspapers,  religious  as  well  as  secu- 
lar. In  his  newspaper,  he  finds  a  sermon  from 
some  noted  preacher,  a  better  one  than  he  is 
likely  to  hear  if  he  goes  to  church.  The  fire  in 
the  grate  is  warm  and  glowing,  while  the  raw 
and  gusty  wind  does  not  invite  him  to  the  outer 
air.  He  yearns  for  rest  and  for  the  quiet  enjoy- 
ment of  his  home.    Is  it  surprising  that,  yielding  to 


84  THE    WEAKENED   INFLUENCE    OF 

the  temptation,  he  settles  into  his  easy  chair,  and 
devotes  the  day  to  reading  ?  He  simply  reads 
rather  than  hears.  Type  and  the  eye  steal  the 
march  on  the  tongue  and  the  ear. 

Or,  instead  of  winter,  be  it  a  summer  day. 
The  garden,  sky,  and  air,  all  conspire  to  attract 
attention.  The  distant  church,  with  its  close 
atmosphere,  and  bedizened  assembly,  and  prosy 
sermon,  do  not  allure.  A  book  full  of  pious 
thoughts  and  inspiring  motives  awaits  its  owner's 
reading.  Is  it  a  wonder  that  the  book  and  the 
open  window  or  garden-shade,  should  win,  as 
against  the  pulpit }  And,  leaving  out  the  question 
of  example,  and  the  duty  that  springs  from  it, 
who  shall  say  that  the  day  may  not  have  been  as 
profitably  spent  with  the  book  and  the  medita- 
tions it  prompted,  as  it  would  have  been  with  the 
living  preacher  and  the  emotions  awakened  by 
his  discourse .-'  Indeed,  to  bring  the  question 
nearer  home,  who  of  us  has  not  known,  in  the 
summer  vacation,  the  long  July  Sunday,  when, 
finding  himself  on  the  mountain  side,  or  in  the 
woody  dell,  an  admirable  book  in  hand,  every 
statement  of  which  found  him  and  strengthened 
him,  he  has  read,  looked  up  into  the  skies,  out 
over  the  broad  expanse  of  hill  and  plain,  and  then 
has  said  to  himself,  "  Thank  God  that  I  am  alone 
with  him,  with  myself  and  my  own  thoughts." 
The  very  stillness  around  him  has  filled  his  heart 
with  awe  and  worship;  a  stillness 

Where  even  the  motion  of  an  angel's  wing 
Would  interrupt  the  intense  tranquillity 
Of  silent  hills,  and  more  than  silent  sky. 


THE    PULPIT   AND    ITS    CAUSES.  85 

Can  we  blame  our  fellow-men,  then,  if  they  do 
not  always  come  to  hear  us  preach  ? 

What  would  be  the  effect  of  habitual  absence 
from  public  worship  on  the  mind  of  even  the 
most  devout  Christian  man,  it  would  not  be  per- 
tinent to  the  object  of  these  lectures  to  describe. 
What  would  be  the  result  in  a  community  where 
private  reading,  however  universal  and  good  in 
quality,  should  take  the  place  of  public  preach- 
ing, it  might  not  be  difficult  to  conjecture,  though 
it  would  be  aside  from  our  present  purpose  to  say. 
Of  one  thing,  however,  we  may  be  sure,  and  that 
is  that  literature  of  one  kind  and  another  is  now 
detaining  large  numbers,  and  among  them  some 
of  the  best  educated  intellects,  from  the  pews  on 
Sunday;  and  that  the  press,  as  compared  with  the 
pulpit,  is  steadily  gaining  in  influence. 

The  Sunday-school  is  another  agency  that  has 
been  actively  at  work  in  diminishing  the  audi- 
ence that  now  waits  on  the  preacher  in  his  Sun- 
day services.  The  Sunday-school,  one  of  the 
most  effective  instruments  for  Christian  work 
now  in  the  hands  of  the  church,  is  an  agency 
for  which  good  men  can  never  be  too  thankful. 
The  church  waited  long  for  the  discovery  of  it. 
It  was  found  at  last  among  the  hidden  resources 
of  Christianity,  ready  to  be  used  whenever  the 
time  for  its  use  had  arrived.  It  is  an  instrumen- 
tality that  may  be  misused.  It  may  be  relied  on 
for  service  which  it  never  can  render.  It  never 
can  take  the  place  of  parental  instruction.  No 
parent  can  transfer  to  it  the  obligations  which 
God  has  laid  on  parentage  itself.  But  it  is,  or 
may  be  made,  a  most  effective  agency  in  the  early 


86  THE    WEAKENED   INFLUENCE    OF 

conversion  of  youth.  In  this,  when  properly  con- 
ducted, it  is  far  more  effective  than  the  pulpit. 
It  is  the  right  hand  of  the  intelligent  and  faithful 
pastor.  Through  its  teachings  and  influence, 
more  persons  are  brought  into  the  church  than 
through  any  other  agency. 

And  yet  the  Sunday-school  diminishes  the  au- 
dience at  the  preaching  service.  It  does  it  in 
two  ways:  First,  it  taxes  the  teachers  and  su- 
perintendent to  such  extent  that  they  very  fre- 
quently feel  compelled  to  absent  themselves  from 
at  least  one  public  service  on  Sunday.  And,  sec- 
ondly, the  children  of  the  Sunday-school,  in  our 
towns  and  cities,  are  now  rarely  found  at  the 
public  church  service.  There  are  several  ex- 
planations of  their  absence.  Most  of  them  at- 
tend school  on  week-days;  and  medical  men 
have  said  it  is  too  much  confinement  for  them 
to  be  kept  at  school  all  the  week,  and  then  be 
compelled  to  attend  both  Sunday-school  and 
church.  Children,  furthermore,  are  often  res- 
tive in  church;  they  dislike  its  restraints;  they 
cannot  understand  what  is  said;  they  prefer  the 
freedom  of  home;  and  parents  yield  to  their  wishes. 
It  has  become  the  fashion  for  children  to  leave 
public  worship  to  their  parents.  It  is  nothing 
unusual  now  for  parents,  in  going  to  or  from 
church,  to  meet  their  children  going  to  or  return- 
ing from  the  Sunday-school.  One  of  the  saddest 
thoughts  to  an  observing  man  in  looking  over  a 
modern  town  congregation  on  Sunday,  is  the 
fewness  of  its  children.  The  boys  and  girls  be- 
tween ages  of  four  and  fifteen,  in  an  ordinary 
church   assembly,   are  all   easily   counted.     The 


THE    PULPIT  AND    ITS    CAUSES.  87 

audience  seems  unnaturally  childless.  Some  of 
us  can  remember  well  the  time  when,  with  the 
parents  sitting  at  opposite  ends  of  the  pew,  the 
interval  was  filled  up  by  children,  the  graded  de- 
scent in  height  marking  well  the  difference  in 
their  ages,  from  the  oldest  son  by  the  father's 
side  down  to  the  youngest  of  the  household,  that, 
gently  dropping  its  head  into  its  mother's  lap, 
slept  away  the  weary  length  of  the  sermon.  All 
this  is  now  changed.  The  half-filled  pews  tell 
a  silent,  but  suggestive,  story.  While  the  par- 
ents worship  in  the  sanctuary,  the  children  are 
reading  their  story  books  at  home,  or  romping 
as  suits  their  taste  and  will. 

And  there  are  those  who  claim  that  this  is  a 
more  sensible  way  of  bringing  up  children  than 
that  which  would  compel  them  to  listen  to  ser- 
mons which  they  cannot  understand,  and  to  sit 
through  a  service  which  fills  them  with  weari- 
ness and  ennui.  But  let  us  remember  how  irre- 
sistible is  habit.  The  child  that  for  the  first  fif- 
teen years  of  his  life  has  been  trained  to  the 
Sunday-school  and  not  to  public  worship,  will 
find,  when  he  has  outgrown  the  one  that  he  has 
not  acquired  a  taste  for  the  other.  His  ruling 
habit  will  prevail;  the  voice  of  the  pulpit  will 
have  no  attraction  for  him;  he  will  regard  Sun- 
day as  a  day  for  entertaining  reading.  The  re- 
sult is  that,  to-day,  aside  from  those  who  in 
childhood  have  become  Christians,  there  is  a 
large  class  of  persons  who  have  been  trained  in 
the  Sunday-school,  but,  having  outgrown  it  in 
age,  have  at  the  same  time  outgrown  and  aban- 
doned all   religi'^us   use  of  Sunday.     And  even 


88  THE    WEAKENED   INFLUENCE    OF 

those  who,  thus  trained,  have  become  Christians, 
have  found  endless  cause  for  regret  that  the  as- 
sociations and  habits  of  their  childhood  should 
have  been  so  alien  from  the  usages  of  public  wor- 
ship and  preaching.  Thousands  of  children  in 
our  land  whose  parents  are  not  church  goers 
are  regular  Sunday-school  scholars  up  to  a  cer- 
tain age;  but  after  that,  all  thought  and  care  for 
school  and  church  alike  are  abandoned.  They 
are  never  found  among  the  hearers  of  sermons. 
Would  that  some  plan  could  be  devised  where- 
by the  Sunday-school  and  public  worship,  with 
its  sermon,  could  be  united.  Better  that  we 
bring  back  the  olden  time,  when  the  pulpit 
was  liable  to  be  disturbed  by  the  cry  of  a  child, 
or  the  restlessness  of  some  unruly  boy,  than  that 
we  preserve  our  proprieties  at  the  expense  of  our 
children.  Better  any  annoyance  from  their  pres- 
ence, than  the  silence  and  solitude  of  the  wor- 
shiping assembly  of  which  they  make  no  part. 
But  the  Sunday-school  sometimes  works  ad- 
versely to  the  influence  of  the  pulpit  in  a  wholly 
unnecessary  way.  It  has  come  to  be  regarded  as 
an  essential  qualification  of  its  superintendent, 
that  he  shall  not  only  be  a  well-informed  Chris- 
tian, genial  in  spirit,  patient  under  trails,  and  in 
sympathy  with  childhood  and  its  wants,  but  also 
endowed  with  a  lively  fancy  and  able  to  interest 
the  young.  He  must  be  capable  of  telling  a 
story  racily,  and,  if  need  be,  of  garnishing  it  to 
suit  the  occasion.  It  is  absolutely  indispensable 
that  he  shall  be  able  to  interest  all,  and  hold 
them  to  regularity  of  attendance.  To  please  the 
children  and  to  make  them  in  love  with  the  school 


THE    PULPIT  AND   ITS    CAUSES.  89 

is  too  often  the  chief  aim  in  its  management. 
The  spicy  anecdote,  the  evening  entertainment, 
the  monthly  concert,  the  Christmas  tree,  the 
summer  excursion,  are  never  lost  sight  of,  while 
clearness  of  conviction  and  solidity  of  character 
receive  only  incidental  attention.  That  this  is  a 
true  portraiture  of  all  superintendents  is  by  no 
means  true;  it  may  not  be  of  the  average.  But 
it  is  true  of  a  considerable  class.  One  such  would 
be  capable  of  incalculable  mischief.  Many  who 
only  proximately  resemble  such,  are  diligently 
disqualifying  their  scholars  for  the  sober  and  seri- 
ous discussions  of  the  pulpit. 

There  is  another  general  cause  contributing 
perhaps  a  little  to  diminish  the  number  found 
in  our  houses  of  worship,  but  of  which  entirely 
too  much,  it  seems  to  me,  has  been  made;  I 
mean  the  costliness  of  church-going.  The  high 
price  of  pew  rents,  we  are  told,  has  driven  away 
the  poor.  Sunday  secular  newspapers  never  tire 
of  reiterating  this  charge.  That  the  charge  has 
foundation  enough  for  the  stress  that  has  been 
laid  on  it,  is  more  than  doubtful. 

The  truth  is,  that  with  the  extremely  (qw  ex- 
ceptions of  popular  preachers  whose  houses  are 
thronged  to  the  discomfort  of  regular  worshipers, 
the  churches  are  only  too  glad  to  welcome  every 
kind  of  hearer.  What  house  of  worship  in  this 
city  is  not  open  to  all  comers  1  What  house  is 
there  in  any  other  city  that,  unless  there  be  to  it 
an  unwarranted  rush  of  hearers  drawn  by  un- 
reasonable curiosity,  has  not  its  pews  which  any 
one  can  occupy  without  rent .-'  What  one  is  there 
that  does  not  stand  with  its  open  doors  and  ushers 


90  THE    WEAKENED   INFLUENCE    OF 

ready  to  seat  any  one  that  will  enter  ?  Nay,  this 
cry  against  expensive  edifices  and  costly  pew 
rents  is  unmeaning  and  insincere.  The  costly 
pews  are  not  in  the  midst  of  populations  that  are 
unable  to  pay  for  them.  To  complain  of  them 
is  as  idle  and  absurd  as  to  complain  of  costly 
residences,  or  expensive  equipages.  They  are 
simply  in  harmony  with  the  means  and  other  ex- 
penditures of  their  occupants.  But  to  build  such 
houses  for  the  poor,  and  tax  the  poor  to  pay  for 
them,  were  foolish  and  criminal.  Churches  and 
their  occupants  should  be  in  harmony.  Arch- 
itecture and  pews  should  be  suited  to  their  lo- 
cality and  the  means  of  the  people  that  build 
them. 

But  if  there  be  ample  means,  why  pray  should 
it  not  be  freely  used  in  building  for  the  worship 
of  God  .■*  To  build  expensive  churches  to  be  paid 
for  by  those  who  shall  come  after  us,  is  neither 
honest  in  the  sight  of  God  nor  just  to  posterity. 
But,  if  we  have  the  means,  and  are  willing  to 
consecrate  it  to  the  glory  of  God,  in  his  name 
let  us  build,  and,  within  the  limits  of  good  taste, 
let  us  build  substantially,  build  elaborately,  build 
with  architectural  beauty  and  with  fitness  for  the 
uses  to  which  the  building  is  to  be  devoted.  The 
effect  we  are  sure  will  not  be  to  repel  people  from 
the  instructions  of  the  pulpit. 

Another  explanation,  and  not  an  imaginary  one, 
of  the  weakened  hold  of  the  pulpit  on  the  popular 
mind  of  our  time,  is  found  in  the  eager  rivalry 
of  the  sects.  In  large  towns  and  cities,  where 
churches  are  strong  and  their  members  numerous, 
this  rivalry  ought,  it  would  seem,  to  work  to  the 


THE    rULPIT  AND    ITS    CAUSES.  91 

pulpit's  advantage.  But  even  there,  intelligent 
and  discerning  people  are  sometimes  offended  and 
hold  aloof  from  all  church-going.  In  the  smaller 
villages,  rivalry  and  antagonism  work  mischief. 
Think  of  it.  In  a  country  village,  with  a  popu- 
lation of  two  thousand  souls,  there  will  often  be 
from  five  to  seven  churches,  all  competing  for 
hearers.  Not  more  that  eight  hundred  or  a  thou- 
sand souls,  all  told,  can  be  counted  as  regular  at- 
tendants at  them  all.  A  single  pastor  could  easily 
care  for  the  whole  number;  and  five,  possibly  sev- 
en, preachers  are  all  struggling  to  win  them  to 
their  mode  of  serving  God.  Is  it  any  wonder  that 
there  should  be  intelligent  people  in  the  village,  it 
may  be  lawyers,  doctors,  school-teachers,  or  other 
educated  men,  who  shall  say,  "  These  cannot  all 
be  right;  they  may  all  be  wrong;  I  have  no  inter- 
est in  any  of  them." 

But  the  worst  of  the  evil  is,  that  out  of  the  five 
or  seven  churches,  not  one  is  able  to  support  a 
preacher  who  can  command  the  attention  of  ed- 
ucated men.  If  the  leaders  care  nothing  for  the 
preachers,  need  it  surprise  us  that  others  become 
indifferent  !  This  is  a  great  and  sore  evil  under 
the  sun,  that  the  sects  in  their  eagerness  to  diffuse 
the  gospel  and  their  views  of  it,  should  stand  in 
each  others'  way,  and  thus  weaken  their  common 
hold  on  the  consciences  of  men. 

A  single  other  item  will  suffice  for  this  part  of 
our  subject.  I  refer  to  the  foreign  element  that 
now  shows  itself  so  conspicuously  in  our  growing 
disregard  fo«-  the  pulpit.  The  influx  among  us 
of  millions  of  foreigners,  who  were  not  church- 
goers in  their  own  land,  and  who  here  studiously 


92  THE    WEAKENED    INFLUENCE    OF 

ignore  alike  all  preaching  and  all  divine  authority 
for  any  sacred  day  of  rest,  swells  to  enormous 
proportions  the  number  of  those  on  whom  the 
pulpit  is  making  no  impression  whatever.  The 
Sunday  recreations  of  these  people  are  familiar- 
izing the  minds  of  the  younger  generation  of 
Americans  with  the  idea  that  church-going,  and 
listening  to  sermons,  and  keeping  holy  day  may 
not,  after  all,  be  so  much  matters  of  duty  as  they 
had  supposed. 

Again,  this  foreign  element  is  being  introduced 
among  us  in  a  subtler  form  by  our  own  foreign 
tourists.  It  is  a  rare  thing  for  an  American  to 
spend  any  considerable  length  of  time  on  the 
continent  of  Europe,  and  not  be  to  some  degree 
affected  by  its  prevalent  method  of  observing 
Sunday.  Preaching  is  there  but  little  heeded; 
Sunday  is  chiefly  a  day  of  social  recreation  and 
often  of  mere  amusement.  Too  many  Americans 
are  thoughtless  enough  to  be  influenced  by  Euro- 
pean example,  and  returning  home  become  weak 
imitators  of  European  habits. 

From  what  we  have  thus  found  in  existing  so- 
ciety adverse  to  the  influence  of  the  pulpit,  let  us 
turn  now  to  some  of  the  sources  of  weakness  in 
the  pulpit  itself  And  here  we  come  to  one  of 
the  most  delicate  subjects  to  be  touched  on  in 
the  whole  course  of  these  lectures.  That  minis- 
ters themselves  are  in  no  way  responsible  for  a 
loss  in  their  power  over  men,  as  compared  with 
other  generations,  no  well  informed  man  can 
maintain.  What  can  be  done  by  them,  if  any- 
thing, to  recover  their  lost  power,  is  a  question 
that  may  safely  be  left  to  be  answered,  each  for 


THE    PULPIT  AND    ITS    CAUSES.  93 

himself,  in  the  light  of  remarks  that  shall  follow. 
Something  doubtless  is  due  to  a  reaction  on  their 
feelings  from  the  popular  indifference  to  their 
ministrations.  A  few  other  and  more  positive 
causes,  we  will  now  name. 

First  of  all  is  the  weakness  that  comes  from 
breathing  the  modern  atmosphere  of  doubt.  Not 
a  few  of  the  younger  class  of  preachers  are 
strangely  affected  by  it.  You,  young  gentle- 
men, have  doubtless  felt  it.  You  do  not  open 
your  Bibles  with  the  same  feelings  of  reverent 
awe  as  did  your  grandfathers.  Shadows  of  ad- 
verse criticism  flit  across  its  pages.  No  act  of 
will  can  shut  them  out.  Of  many  a  text,  the 
interpretation  of  your  grandfathers  seems  invalid. 
The  clear  tones  of  divine  authority  which  they 
heard  from  every  part  of  the  Bible  you  perhaps 
fail  to  hear.  You  may  read  the  Scriptures  de- 
voutly; you  may  quote  them  as  an  authority  from 
which  there  is  no  appeal;  and  yet,  if  you  read  and 
quote  them  with  any  other  feeling  than  that  of 
uttering  the  direct  word  of  God  to  men,  there 
will  be  a  nameless  something  in  the  heart  that 
will  enfeeble  the  utterance. 

Incomparably  worse  is  it  with  the  creeds.  The 
authority  of  these  has  vanished.  Even  the  apos- 
tolic *  and  Nicene,  admirable  as  compends  of 
doctrine,  are  now  clearly  seen  and  felt  to  be  only 
the  works  of  fallible  men.  No  well-informed  man 
now  trembles  at  the  anathemas  of  the  Athanasian 
symbol.     No  intelligent  preacher  now  quotes   a 

*  The  so-called  Apostles'  Creed  has  saved  itself  from  the  fate  of 
all  others  simply  by  its  extreme  brevity,  and  by  being  couched,  as 
nearly  as  possible,  in  the  identical  language  of  Scripture. 


94  THE    WEAKENED    INFLUENCE    OF 

creed  as  an  ultimate  statement  of  truth;  no  one 
for  a  moment  feels  that  its  authority  can  be  final. 

And  yet  preachers  are  not  skeptics.  Far  from 
it.  They  are  believers,  and  honest  believers.  A 
more  thoroughly  honest  class  of  men  never  stood 
on  the  face  of  the  earth.  But  out  of  their  very 
honesty  comes  an  element  of  their  weakness. 
Many  of  them  have  fought  their  way  to  such  con- 
victions as  they  have,  through  armies  of  doubts 
and  opposing  criticisms.  They  have  learned  to 
the  last  degree  to  be  intellectually  honest.*  They 
will  affirm  nothing  to  which  their  minds  cannot 
give  full  assent.  But,  striving  always  for  intel- 
lectual assent,  they  too  often  forget  another  step 
— the  test  of  experience — which  alone  can  bring 
with  it  the  full  consent  of  the  heart.  Unless  the 
heart  go  with  the  intellect,  consenting  to,  de- 
lighting in  all  the  intellect  accepts  as  true,  there 
can  be  none  of  that  moral  conviction  and  earnest- 
ness in  the  preacher,  without  which  all  preaching 
will  fail  of  the  end  for  which  alone  preaching  has 
been  appointed. 

But  again,  on  the  other  hand,  a  preacher  may 

*  The  cool  assurance  with  which  certain  persons  now  speak  of  a 
want  of  intellectual  honesty  on  the  part  of  the  modern  preacher,  is 
certainly  suggestive.  Does  it  never  occiu-  to  these  critics  that  possi- 
bly a  minister  of  the  gospel  may  be  as  honest  as  themselves;  that  a 
truth  which  vindicates  itself  in  his  moral  consciousness  may  furnish 
even  a  better  reason  for  believing  it,  than  if  resting  on  the  mere  evi- 
dence of  the  senses  ?  It  is  a  stale  and  borrowed  cant  that  these  critics 
indulge  in — the  cant  of  English  scientists  who  taunt  English  church- 
men with  singing  creeds  and  using  a  ritual  they  do  not  believe  in — 
but  a  cant  that  in  this  country,  where  no  one  is  required  or  expected 
to  believe  all  that  his  sect  is  reputed  to  hold,  is  puerile  and  indica- 
tive of  a  bigotry  of  unbelief  not  to  be  looked  for  in  generous  and 
educated  minds. 


THE    PULPIT  AND    ITS    CAUSES.  95 

make  himself  uninviting  and  wearisome  by  a  slav- 
ish and  lifeless  regard  for  the  dogmas  and  phrase- 
ology of  a  theological  system.  The  distinguishing 
points  of  the  system  may  be  its  theories  designed 
to  explain  the  more  difficult  doctrines  of  Chris- 
tianity, the  whole  being  but  the  product  of  a 
philosophy  applied  to  the  facts  of  the  Scriptures, 
and  of  the  moral  consciousness  of  man.  The 
theories  may  have  become  the  accepted  traditions 
of  the  sect  to  which  the  preacher  belongs.  Tra- 
dition has  given  them  a  sanctity  which  he  must 
not  violate;  they  have  become  the  tests  of  his 
orthodoxy.  If  he  will  be  orthodox,  he  must  use 
the  well-known  and  well-worn  phraseology.  It 
was  once  fresh  and  plump  with  meaning:  to-day, 
like  husks  from  which  the  fruit  has  dropped,  it  is 
simply  dry  and  worthless.  To  continue  to  repeat 
it  is  to  talk  to  empty  pews. 

Let  me  illustrate  my  meaning.  A  preacher 
holds  a  sharply  defined  doctrine  of  sin  and  human 
guilt.  He  conceives  of  the  unrenewed  man  as 
morally  dead  and  helpless.  He  describes  his 
condition  minutely,  depicts  his  inner  state,  shapes 
the  whole  picture  to  accord  exactly  with  a  given 
system  of  theology;  but  not  a  word  is  taken  from 
the  real  experience  of  the  preacher,  and  not  a 
lineament  of  the  character  described  is  recognized 
by  a  single  hearer  as  his  own.  The  preacher  has 
drawn  his  words  from  the  Scriptures;  his  thoughts 
wholly  from  books  or  hearsay,  his  picture  is  un- 
real, but  is  carefully  made  to  accord  with  an  iron 
system  of  theology.  The  people  care  nothing  for 
his  picture,  his  theology,  or  himself 

Again,  another  preacher  has  a  pet  theory  of 


96  THE    WEAKENED    INFLUENCE    OF 

the  atonement.  It  has  been  worked  out  into  log- 
ical completeness.  Every  part  of  it  has  been 
carefully  adjusted  to  every  other  part.  He  can 
state  it  with  perfect  clearness.  It  may  be  the 
substitution  theory,  or  the  governmental  theory, 
or  the  life  theory,  or  the  theory  of  moral  influence; 
but  it  exactly  accords  with  the  other  doctrines 
of  his  system.  It  is  in  no  sense  the  reflex  of  his 
Christian  experience.  It  never  cost  him  a  strug- 
gle, or  a  tear,  or  a  prayer,  to  work  it  out.  Not  a 
thought  in  it  came  from  below  his  intellect.  He 
has  in  no  sense  felt  it  out,  but  by  the  aid  of  his 
metaphysics  and  his  books  has  simply  thought  it. 
He  stands  before  an  audience  and  states  it  with  the 
utmost  degree  of  accuracy.  But  as  you  look  at  him, 
the  lack-luster  eye,  the  uninterested  and  unin- 
teresting manner  with  which  he  goes  through  the 
whole  series  of  statements,  shows  that  it  -has  no 
vital  significancy;  it  expresses  no  real  life  in  him- 
self; it  carries  no  conviction  to  the  hearers.  There 
is  wanting  even  the  faint  exhilaration  that  accom- 
panies the  solution  of  a  sum  in  arithmetic.  When 
a  student  at  the  black-board  draws  a  diagram  in 
geometry,  goes  through  the  successive  steps  of 
his  problem,  and  reaches  his  conclusion,  there  is 
at  least  the  feeling  that  he  has  proved  something. 
He  has  talked  of  projections  in  space,  and  shown 
their  relations;  the  preacher  has  taken  his  hearers 
into  vacuity,  and  left  them  asphyxiated. 

Or  perhaps  it  is  not  formal  doctrine  that  the 
preacher  discusses.  He  has  his  special  theory  of 
regeneration.  He  regards  the  heart  of  man  as  a 
citadel  to  be  taken  and  transformed.  Every  ser- 
mon he  preaches,  and  every  thought  he  handles, 


THE    PULPIT  AND    ITS    CAUSES.  97 

he  shapes  to  accomplish  that  end.  His  aim  and 
his  methods  have  become  as  familiar  to  his  con- 
gregation as  the  features  of  his  face.  No  matter 
what  his  text,  or  what  the  point  of  departure  in 
his  thought,  his  hearers  know  beforehand  the  route 
he  will  take  and  where  his  halting  place  will  be. 
They  know  too  well  all  his  logical  tactics  and  all 
his  rhetorical  equipments  to  be  moved  by  any 
charge  he  may  make  on  them.  And  yet,  under 
all  this,  they  could  be  patient,  if  only  there  could 
be  a  living  and  life-giving  soul  within  him.  But 
in  vain.  Familiarity  with  his  own  thoughts,  and 
endless  repetitions  of  himself  have  made  him  a 
mere  functionary.  His  occupation  has  become  a 
trade,  and  the  people  are  indifferent  to  his  wares. 
And  here  is  suggested  another  evil  that  detracts 
from  the  influence  of  preachers.  The  public  re- 
gard them,  they  sometimes  appear  to  regard 
themselves,  as  a  special  caste,  standing  quite 
apart  from  the  rest  of  mankind.  Some  of  them 
seem  to  take  special  delight  in  making  themselves 
conspicuously  distinct  from  all  other  men.  Tone, 
dress,  manner,  language,  all  are  specifically  cleri- 
cal. They  deal  with  ghostly  subjects,  are  leading 
to  a  ghostly  future,  and  all  they  do  and  say  is 
after  a  ghostly  fashion.  They  seem  desirous  to 
have  it  understood  that  they  are  not  made  up  of 
flesh  and  blood  and  bones  and  passions  and  hopes 
and  fears  and  aspirations  and  yearnings  like  other 
men.  The  result  is  a  feeling  of  unreality  in  what- 
ever is  religious.  A  spectral  air  is  given  to  all 
religious  objects.  Rites,  ceremonies,  ordinances, 
sermons  seem  to  belong  to  an  unearthly  region, 
neither  relieving  nor  touching  the  hard,  dry,  mat- 


98  THE    WEAKENED    INFLUENCE    OF 

ter-of-fact  life  of  real  men  and  women.  Practical 
religion  becomes  perfunctory,  and  worship  dreary 
and  unmeaning,  making  many  a  man  cry  out  with 
the  poet: 

Great  God  !  I'd  rather  be 
A  Pagan,  suckled  in  a  creed  outworn, 
So  might  I,  standing  on  some  pleasant  lea, 
Have  glimpses  that  would  make  me  less  forlorn; 
Have  sight  of  Proteus  rising  from  the  sea; 
Or  hear  old  Triton  blow  his  wreathed  horn. 

Another  source  of  weakness  with  many  preach- 
ers lies  in  an  habitual  and  needless  contraction  of 
their  whole  being  to  the  single  work  of  sermon- 
making.  In  a  desire  to  magnify  their  office  as 
heralds  of  the  truth,  they  neglect  the  very  means 
by  which  alone  this  can  be  done.  In  all  their 
studies  and  reading,  in  all  their  intercourse  with 
society,  in  looking  at  every  scene  of  nature  or 
work  of  art,  their  one  thought  is,  How  can  I  use 
this  in  a  sermon  }  Sermon-making  is  the  one  ab- 
sorbing thought  of  their  lives.  They  comply 
with  an  injunction  which  I  remember  to  have 
read  some  years  ago  in  a  treatise  on  Homiletics, 
to  "cultivate  a  homiletic  habit."  But  he  who 
so  uses  his  mind  is  as  unwise  as  the  farmer  who 
every  year  is  intent  on  harvesting  a  crop,  but 
never  thinks  of  tillage.  To  that  kind  of  hus- 
bandry, there  comes  inevitably  the  time  when  no 
crop  can  be  gathered:  to  the  preacher  who  so 
treats  his  own  mind,  the  time  is  sure  to  come 
when  no  sermon  he  can  preach  will  be  worth 
hearing. 

Sometimes  the  theological  student  begins  his 
seminary  life  with   this   over-cultivation  of  the 


THE   PULPIT  AND   ITS    CAUSES.  99 

homiletic  habit.  Everything  in  his  thoughts  is 
secondary  to  sermon-making.  All  study  and 
reading  are  made  subservient  to  the  accumulation 
of  materials  for  the  sermons  he  has  in  hand.  As 
the  result  of  his  work  he  strikes  twelve  when  he 
leaves  the  seminary.  Each  successive  year,  con- 
tinuing his  seminary  habits  of  study,  he  strikes 
diminishing  hours.  Long  before  he  has  passed 
middle  life,  he  strikes  one.  When  he  should  be 
ripest  and  fullest  in  his  strength,  he  stands  up  to 
preach,  but,  like  an  old  and  worn-out  clock,  there 
is  a  muffled  sound  of  moving  machinery,  a  buzz 
and  a  whirr,  but  no  stroke;  he  cannot  strike  one. 
But  let  us  proceed  to  notice  another  alleged 
cause  of  weakness  in  the  Christian  ministry;  I 
mean  the  provision  now  existing  among  all 
denominations  for  the  beneficiary  education  of 
candidates  for  the  ministry.  This  method  of 
providing  for  an  increase  of  ministers  has  been 
vehemently  objected  to.  It  has  been  affirmed 
that  the  selection  of  men  for  the  clerical  office, 
before  education  and  formation  of  character  have 
determined  their  fitness  for  it,  cannot  fail  to  bring 
into  it  some  men  of  inferior  quality  and  some  who 
ought  never  to  have  entered  it;  that  it  exposes 
during  the  period  of  education,  to  perils  through 
which  the  wisest  and  best  do  not  always  pass  in 
safety.'  That  much  has  been  said  on  this  subject, 
to  which  no  one  acquainted  with  the  facts  can 
assent,  it  is  needless,  perhaps,  to  say.  That  there 
are  however,  grave  evils  connected  with  eleemos- 
ynary education  for  the  ministry,  no  one  will  deny. 
To  two  of  its  sources  of  danger  so  far  as  these  affect 
the  pulpit,  a  passing  allusion  may  be  allowable. 


100  THE    WEAKENED    INFLUENCE    OF 

The  first  of  these  is  a  possible  loss  of  self-reli- 
ance and  self-respect.  To  supply  one's  wants 
gratuitously,  it  is  said,  is  to  deprive  him  of  a 
needed  stimulus  to  exertion.  Beneficiary  aid 
may  so  act,  but  it  need  not.  Sons  are  not 
necessarily  ruined  by  the  gratuities  of  their  par- 
ents. There  is  no  reason  why  the  beneficiaries  of 
the  churches  should  be  spoiled  of  their  self-reliance. 
Until  the  appropriations  made  to  them  are  greatly 
in  excess  of  any  ever  yet  allowed,  there  is  little 
danger  that  any  young  man  of  spirit,  any  one 
worth  educating  and  needing  assistance,  will  not 
find  in  his  own  unsupplied  wants  stimulus  enough 
for  all  the  exertion  of  which  he  is  capable. 

Not  to  lose  his  self-respect  will  be  more  difficult. 
To  keep  it  full  and  self-sustaining,  he  will  need 
all  the  support  that  the  consciousness  of  asking 
no  man's  gratuity  can  give  him.  And  if  God  has 
called  him  to  be  a  Christian  minister,  he  needs  to 
apologize  to  no  man  for  being  one.  If  he  be 
right-minded,  conscious  of  a  purpose  to  do  the 
very  best  and  utmost  he  can  in  life,  and  ready  to 
help  himself  whenever  and  wherever  he  can,  then 
has  he  a  ground  for  self-respect  which  no  personal 
wants  nor  disposition  of  others  to  supply  them 
should  overthrow  or  for  an  instant  shake. 

But  there  is  one  peril  here  to  which  I  must 
allude;  a  temptation  into  which  too  many  have 
actually  fallen.  It  often  comes  under  the  guise 
of  superior  sanctity.  A  young  man  expecting  to 
preach  the  gospel  says:  "Oh,  I  have  abandoned 
all  unholy  ambitions.  I  am  not  an  aspirant  for 
college  honors.  I  have  a  nobler  aim  in  life  than 
to  work  for  high  standing  as  a  scholar."     Mistak- 


THE    PULPIT  AND    ITS    CAUSES.  101 

\r\g  indolence  for  piety  and  cant  for  religion,  he 
drifts  through  college  a  third-rate  scholar,  wriggles 
through  the  Theological  Seminary,  a  man  of  many 
words,  of  great  expectations  and  of  small  per- 
formance. That  such  men  have  done  their  full 
share  in  belittling  the  ministry  of  our  time,  in 
weakening  its  hold  on  the  public  attention,  cannot 
be  denied.  But  if  any  man  should  feel  himself 
called  as  by  a  voice  from  heaven  to  bend  every 
energy  of  his  being  to  the  one  work  of  securing  to 
himself  the  largest  possible  measure  of  discipline 
of  both  mind  and  heart,  and  the  largest  resources 
of  knowledge  attainable,  it  is  he  whom  God  has 
called  to  preach  the  gospel  of  his  Son  Jesus 
Christ. 

Again,  the  Theological  Seminaries  have  come 
in  for  their  share  of  blame  for  the  diminished 
power  jof  the  pulpit  in  our  time.  That  theological 
education  in  this  country  has,  for  fifty  years  past, 
been  entirely  superior  to  any  other  so-called 
professional  training,  is  beyond  all  question.  The 
really  educated  minister  has  been  more  highly 
educated  than  either  the  doctor  or  the  lawyer. 
He  has  had  more  mental  discipline,  has  been  a 
better  linguist,  has  been  better  read,  has  had  a 
wider  and  more  accurate  acquaintance  with  liter- 
ature and  philosophy.  The  Theological  Seminary, 
until  very  recently,  has  been  every  way  in  advance 
of  the  Medical  School  and  the  Law  School;  and 
is  still  ahead  of  them  in  the  breadth  of  its  culture. 
It  so  happens,  however,  that  the  decline  in  the 
influence  of  the  pulpit  has  been  subsequent  to  the 
origin  of  Theological  Schools  and  has  kept  pace 
with  the  increase  of  attention  to  theological  edu- 


102  THE    WEAKENED    INFLUENCE    OF 

cation;  but  to  place  these  in  the  relation  of  cause 
and  effect  is  as  irrational  as  it  would  be  to  charge 
the  illiteracy  of  the  south,  on  the  existence  of  the 
Smithsonian  Institution.  The  truth  is,  the  Theo- 
logical Seminary  has  served  to  retard  a  decline 
which  it  did  not  create  and  cannot  wholly  arrest. 

But  the  specific  charge  is,  that  the  Seminaries 
make  scholars  rather  than  preachers.  Nor  is  the 
charge  absolutely  groundless.  The  Seminaries 
have  undeniably  sometimes  made  small  scholars 
instead  of  great  preachers.  I  say  small  scholars, 
because  great  scholars  are  the  combined  products 
of  rare  endowments  and  rare  opportunities.  So, 
indeed,  are  great  preachers.  But  the  one  chief 
aim  of  the  Theological  Seminary  is  or  should  be 
not  to  make  scholars,  but  to  make  the  best 
possible  preachers  and  pastors;  not  to  make 
popular  preachers,  in  the  common  acceptation 
of  the  word  popular,  (for,  with  very  rare  excep- 
tions, the  real  usefulness  of  the  preacher  will  .be  in 
the  inverse  ratio  of  his  popularity),  but  preachers 
who  can  instruct,  who  can  win  and  hold  audiences, 
who  can  perform  the  real  function  of  ambassadors 
for  Christ. 

And  that  even  ordinary  men  of  good  under- 
standing and  education  may  be  trained  into  suc- 
cessful preachers,  in  the  sense  we  have  described, 
both  observation  and  experience  sufficiently  tes- 
tify. And  it  is  an  evidence  of  great  weakness  and 
affectation,  not  to  say  of  self-flattering  vanity,  when 
any  man  with  a  "  Reverend  "  prefixed  to  his  name, 
tosses  his  head  on  one  side  and  says:  "Oh,  I  do 
not  set  up  to  be  a  preacher;  I  am  only  a  patient 
studentand  teacherof  God's  word;  "the  implication 


THE    PULPIT   AND    ITS    CAUSES.  103 

is  that  preaching  is  below  scholarship.  Indeed, 
you  sometimes  hear  it  said,  in  disparagement  of  a 
superior  preacher,  that  "he  is  only  a  preacher;" 
as  if  that  were  not  just  as  much  to  his  credit  as 
to  be  only  something  else.  The  truth  is,  that 
first-rate  preaching  is  too  often  disparaged  by 
those  whose  duty  it  should  be  to  cultivate  it  in 
themselves  and  to  encourage  it  in  others.  And 
this  has  been  one  of  the  ways  in  which  the 
power  of  the  pulpit  has  been  weakened. 

Now,  how  does  the  prevalent  method  of  pre- 
paring a  man  for  the  function  of  preaching  actu- 
ally deal  with  him  .?  For  ten  years,  he  is  shut  up 
to  uninterrupted  work  as  a  recluse  student.  At,. 
or  near,  the  end  of  his  student  life,  he  is  told  to 
write  a  sermon  and  deliver  it  to  an  audience.  For 
the  first  time  in  his  life,  he  finds  himself  address- 
ing living  thoughts  to  living  men.  What  it  is 
actually  to  preach,  he  does  not  yet  know.  Of 
course,  he  has  had  his  college  declamations,  has 
had  his  college  and  seminary  debates,  has  writ- 
ten sermons  and  criticised  them  as  works  of  art; 
he  has,  to  borrow  a  term  from  the  Law  School, 
had  his  "moot"  preachings;  but  in  delivering 
real  messages  from  God  to  waiting  souls,  he  is 
without  experience.  How  to  lay  hold  of  an  au- 
dience and  control  their  thoughts  and  emotions, 
he  has  yet  to  learn.  Alas !  that  so  many  never 
learn. 

One  other  thing  that  has  detracted  and  is  now 
actively  detracting  from  the  influence  of  the  pul- 
pit may  be  glanced  at,  and  your  patience  shall  be 
relieved.  It  is  found  in  the  endless  repetition  of 
old  sermons.     A  sermon   that  is  to  accomplish 


104  THE    WEAKENED    INFLUENCE    OF 

an  end  and  to  be  worth  listening  to,  must  em- 
body real  thoughts,  thoughts  that  have  some 
connection  with  the  interests  and  issues  of  life, 
and  must  be  instinct  with  the  living  convictions 
of  the  preacher.  To  be  such  a  sermon,  it  must 
come  from  the  preacher's  mind  and  heart,  warm 
with  the  very  life-blood  of  his  soul  at  the  mo- 
ment of  its  delivery. 

But  how  a  preacher  can  stand  up  before  an 
audience,  and  proceed  to  read  as  a  message  to 
living  men,  a  sermon  just  as  he  wrote  it  forty, 
thirty,  twenty,  or  even  ten  years  ago,  I  cannot 
comprehend.  When  written,  the  sermon,  doubt- 
less, was  a  real  embodiment  of  the  writer's  thoughts, 
convictions,  and  emotions.  But  during  the  rush 
of  intervening  years,  what  changes,  if  there  has 
been  a  soul  within  him,  have  passed  over  his 
spirit.  To  write  that  sermon  now  would  be  sim- 
ply impossible.  And  yet  he  tries  to  put  himself 
into  it,  and  in  that  guise  presents  himself  to  an 
audience  of  thinking  people.  An  old  coat  that 
he  wore  twenty  or  thirty  years  ago  might  be 
aired,  and  the  dust  whipped  out  of  it,  and  he 
present  himself  in  it  with  much  more  propriety 
than  in  the  old  sermon.  No  treatment  of  the 
sermon  except  complete  revivification,  can  re- 
lieve it  of  its  smell  of  age.  Like  an  old  bouquet 
of  flowers,  its  once  delicate  fragrance  has  sunk 
into  a  sickening  odor. 

One  of  the  sad  thoughts  connected  with  exist- 
ing Christianity  is  that  so  many  churches  are 
willing  to  live  on  what  are  called  "  pulpit  sup- 
plies." To  begin  such  a  mode  of  life  is  to  be- 
gin at  once  to  decline  in  efficiency  and  life.     A 


THE    PULPIT  AND    ITS    CAUSES.  105 

sadder  thought,  however,  is  that  so  many  lean 
and  hungry  preachers,  of  whom  the  churches 
are  not  anxious  to  make  pastors,  are  found  with 
empty  pockets,  with  thread-bare  coats,  with  ser- 
mons long  since  in  the  sere  and  yellow  leaf,  wait- 
ing anxiously  to  be  called  for  as  supplies.  Need 
we  be  surprised  that  in  such  churches,  and  with 
such  preachers,  there  never  should  be  any  diffi- 
culty in  finding  a  seat  ? 

But  here  we  may  be  reminded  that  actors  will 
for  successive  weeks  act  the  same  play,  and  with 
never-failing  power  rouse  their  audiences  to  high 
enthusiasm;  and  may  be  asked,  why  cannot  ser- 
mons be  repeated  with  equal  effect?  If  preaching 
were  acting,  they  could  be.  But,  if  its  end  be  to 
control  conscience  and  mold  character,  its  office 
must  be  something  else  than  that  of  the  player  on 
the  stage.  Or,  perhaps,  we  shall  be  reminded  of 
the  great  preachers  of  the  time  of  Louis  XIV., 
who  were  wont  to  repeat  their  sermons,  and 
whose  auditors  on  the  way  to  church,,  when  some 
great  sermon  was  to  be  repeated,  were  accus- 
tomed to  dispute  about  the  tone  and  emphasis 
and  gesture  with  which  some  noted  passage 
would  be  delivered.  And  if  the  Protestant  pul- 
pit is  to  be  made  what  the  French  then  was,  a 
place  for  the  display  of  oratory,  the  reminder  is 
relevant;  but  if,  instead,  it  is  to  be  a  place  for 
instruction  in  righteousness,  the  example  is  not 
pertinent. 

But  of  course  sermons  are  to  be  repeated.  On 
given  conditions,  a  good  one  may  be  repeated  as 
often  as  there  is  a  new  audience  to  hear  it.  In- 
deed, it  may  with  profit  be  repeated  to  the  same 


106        WEAKENED    INFLUENCE    OF  PULPIT. 

audience.  But  the  conditions  are  that  the  ser- 
mon shall  be  literally  re-thought  and  re-elabo- 
rated with  every  new  delivery.  In  this  way,  and 
in  this  alone,  can  it  be  filled  up  with  the  vital  and 
vitalizing  emotions  of  the  preacher.  It  thus  vir- 
tually becomes  with  every  new  delivery,  a  new 
sermon.  And  if  young  ministers  who  change 
their  pastorates  that  they  may  re-use  their  old 
preparations,  will  use  them  only  by  literally  re- 
thinking and  re-writing  them,  the  change  will 
bring  them  growth.  If  they  simply  repeat  with- 
out re-elaboration,  they  will  begin  to  die  at  the 
top,  instead  of  shooting  out  into  new  and  wider 
branches. 

The  generation  to  which  we  belong  is  eager  in 
its  pursuits  and  impatient  of  everything  unreal 
and  unmeaning.  The  preacher  who  is  to  catch 
its  ear  must  have  thoughts  pertinent  to  its  life 
and  words  that  are  plump  with  meaning.  No  of- 
fice ever  vouchsafed  of  God  to  men  was  grander 
than  that  of  his  who  is  commissioned  to  speak  in 
God's  name  to  the  people  of  this  century.  May 
the  Omniscient  Spirit  give  to  you,  young  gentle- 
men, some  just  conception  of  the  greatness  of  the 
opportunity  and  the  responsibility  of  the  work  to 
which  as  heralds  of  Divine  truth  you  have  been 
called. 


LECTURE  V. 

SPECIAL  REQUIREMENTS    IN    THE    PREACHER    OF 
OUR    TIME. 

It  is  evident  that  every  age  requires  its  own 
special  style  of  preaching.  It  is  equally  evident 
that  the  preachers  of  every  age  should  have  their 
special  qualifications.  But  there  are  requisites 
in  the  minister  of  the  gospel  which  are  common 
to  all  times  and  places.  He  must,  of  course, 
always  and  everywhere  have  some  degree  of 
familiarity  with  the  historical  facts  of  Christi- 
anity. And  he  must  not  only  know  these  by 
reading  and  hearsay;  he  must  know  them  as 
facts  that  relate  to  him  personally.  He  must 
have  penetrated  to  the  heart  of  their  meaning; 
that  meaning  must  have  awakened  him  to  new 
life  and  power.  He  may  know  the  Scriptures  in 
their  original  tongues,  and  be  able  to  explain 
them  with  historical  and  grammatical  accuracy; 
but  without  spiritual  discernment — a  discernment 
that  can  be  imparted  only  by  the  omniscient 
Spirit  through  whom  the  Scriptures  were  given 
— he  never  can  understand  or  interpret  aright 
their  real  and  inward  meaning.  He  should  also 
know  something  of  the  tastes  and  habits  and  cur- 


108  SPECIAL    REQUIREMENTS  IN 

rent  thoughts  of  the  people  whom  he  addresses. 
And,  if  he  is  to  be  a  pastor,  no  matter  when  or 
where,  his  religious  knowledge  should  be  unques- 
tionably in  advance  of  that  of  his  flock.  The 
special  requirements  in  the  preacher  of  a  given 
age  will  differ  of  course  from  those  common  to  all 
ages  rather  in  degree  than  in  kind.  Let  us,  as 
the  subject  of  the  present  lecture,  inquire  into  the 
special  qualifications  that  should  be  looked  for 
in  the  Christian  minister  of  our  time. 

He  ought,  first  of  all,  to  be  a  man  of  real  and 
ever  growing  acquaintance  with  Christianity  as  a 
power  in  his  own  soul.  There  is  no  way  of  un- 
derstanding moral  and  religious  truth  like  that  of 
complete  surrender  of  ourselves  to  its  power.  No 
one  knows  the  ocean,  till  he  has  crossed  it;  nor 
the  Alps,  till  he  has  climbed  them.  No  one 
knows  Christ,  till  he  has  communed  with  him; 
nor  his  truth,  till  he  has  felt  its  power  within 
himself. 

Ours  is  a  preeminently  skeptical  age.  An 
atmosphere  of  religious  distrust  pervades  litera- 
ture and  society.  It  enfeebles  the  souls  of  men 
like  a  malarial  poison.  Preachers  themselves,  as 
said  in  a  previous  lecture,  are  affected  by  it.  The 
only  true  antidote — the  real  prophylactic  against 
the  poison — is  in  an  unaffected  and  ever  deepen- 
ing submission  of  the  whole  being  to  the  personal 
Christ  and  his  truth.  Read  as  we  will,  and  reason 
as  we  may,  the  conclusive  evidence,  after  all,  for 
the  divine  authority  of  our  holy  religion  is  that  it 
finds  us  and  renews  us  at  the  centre  of  our  being. 
No  man  needs  this  ever  present  evidence  so  much 
as    the   preacher.      He    needs    it    not   only  as  a 


THE   PREACHER   OF  OUR   TIME.  109 

safeguard,  but  for  the  power  it  gives  him;  as  a 
safeguard,  because  he  whose  business  it  is  to  be 
ever  looking  after  other  people,  is  in  danger  of 
forgetting  himself;  for  the  power  it  gives,  because 
no  man's  words  are  so  filled  with  electric  energy 
as  his  whose  thoughts  spring  from  his  heart. 

And  the  requisite  we  have  thus  specified  as 
being  foremost  of  all,  is  equally  the  need  of  every 
kind  of  preacher.  The  evangelist,  or  so-called 
revivalist,  needs  it  quite  as  much  as  the  settled 
pastor.  In  fact,  he  needs  it  more.  His  calling 
exposes  him  to  perils  that  are  specially  his  own. 
He  is  always  aiming  at  immediate  results;  he  will 
sow  and  reap  in  a  day.  Every  sermon  is  shaped 
with  a  view  to  the  production  of  a  definite  stage 
of  feeling  and  conviction,  and  his  whole  series  of 
sermons  to  the  culmination  of  feelings  in  a  crisis. 
He  is  perpetually  changing  the  field  of  his  opera- 
tions, and  repeating  his  round  of  discourses.  His 
greatest  danger  is,  that  endless  repetitions,  with 
sharp,  business-like  calculation  of  results,  shall 
deaden  his  sensibilities  and  make  him  a  mere 
actor.  Playing  upon  the  feelings  of  others  tends 
directly  to  harden  his  own. 

The  qualifications  of  a  modern  evangelist  are 
neither  numerous  nor  difficult  to  acquire.  Fewer 
sermons  than  would  suffice  for  eighteen  months 
of  a  regular  pastorate;  a  facile  and  not  over-accu- 
rate use  of  the  Scriptures;  a  good  stock  of  illus- 
trations and  well  varnished  anecdotes;  a  fervid 
manner;  and  withal  that  perfect  mastery  of  his 
discourses  which  comes  from  repetition  of  them; 
and  you  have  the  equipment  of  the  average  evan- 
gelist.    And  if  any  man  among  men  needs  to  be 


110  SPECIAL   REQUIREMENTS   iM 

watchful  over  his  own  soul,  and  to  strive  inces- 
santly to  keep  himself  alive  to  the  solemnity  of 
the  truth  he  handles,  it  is  he  who  is  always  at 
work  on  the  sensibilities  of  others.  But  this 
lecture  is  not  to  him,  nor  for  his  particular  ben- 
efit; it  is  to  those  who,  I  trust,  are  to  be  stated 
teachers  of  regular  Sunday  congregations. 

To  a  genuine  and  ever-deepening  Christian 
experience,  the  preacher  of  our  time  must  have 
a  critical  knowledge  of  the  Scriptures.  Every- 
body who  now  goes  to  Church  may  be  supposed 
to  know  something  of  the  Bible  and  its  contents. 
Alas,  that  the  overwhelming  majority  of  church- 
goers are  invited  to  listen  to  what  they  already 
know  by  heart.  He  who  to-day  can  claim  any 
right  to  be  heard  from  the  pulpit,  must  know 
something  more  of  the  Scriptures  than  the  aver- 
age of  his  hearers.  This  was  always  an  assumed 
requirement  in  the  Christian  minister;  to-day  it  is 
imperatively  demanded.  Everybody  now  knows 
that  the  helps  for  the  study  of  the  Bible  surpass 
those  of  all  past  centuries.  The  Book  was  never 
so  intelligible  as  it  now  is,  if  one  do  but  know 
how  to  read  it  critically.  Of  the  Christian  min- 
ister who  does  not  know  how  so  to  read  it,  in- 
telligent hearers  are  impatient,  and  will  not  give 
heed  to  him. 

Nor  is  this  demand  for  a  large  and  accurate 
acquaintance  with  the  Bible  on  the  part  of  him 
who  is  to  teach  its  religion,  either  unreasonable 
or  difficult  .to  comply  with.  It  is  not  unreason- 
able, because  what  he  cannot  justify  as  warranted 
by  Scripture  he  has  no  right  to  preach  as  the  re- 
ligion of  Christ.     It  is  not  difficult,  because  not 


THE   PREACHER    OF  OUR   TIME.  Ill 

only  are  the  helps  for  a  knowledge  of  our  sacred 
books  in  excess  of  those  of  all  past  times;  but 
the  meaning  of  the  books  is  overflowingly  full. 
The  wells  of  the  Bible  are  not  dry.  Their  waters 
are  as  deep,  and  as  cool,  and  as  refreshing  as  at 
the  beginning,  if  one  do  but  know  how  to  draw 
from  them.  And  while  a  "  saving  knowledge " 
is  possible  from  the  most  imperfect  of  transla- 
tions, to  the  Christian  pastor  of  our  day,  no 
method  of  extracting  from  the  Scriptures  the 
fullness  of  their  meaning  can  ever  take  the  place 
of  that  furnished  in  a  knowledge  of  the  original 
tongues  in  which  the  Scriptures  were  written. 

A  right  use  of  the  Scriptures  in  sermons  is  by 
no  means  so  common  as  it  ought  to  be.  Every 
sermon  should,  of  course,  be  scriptural  in  the 
sense  of  both  explaining  the  Scriptures,  and 
being  in  strict  accord  with  their  teachings.  But 
in  order  to  do  this,  there  need  not  be  emptied 
upon  the  audiences  long  passages  containing 
matter  wholly  irrelevant  to  the  subject  in  hand. 
This  is  equally  a  misuse  of  the  Bible,  and  an 
abuse  of  the  patience  of  the  hearer.  It  floods 
without  giving  a  drop  to  drink. 

Nor  is  it  a  whit  more  sensible  to  use  the  Bible 
as  a  compositor  uses  his  case  of  types.  The 
compositor  stands  before  his  case  and  picks  out 
the  letters  that  make  up  the  word  that  is  to  be 
printed.  The  preacher  stands  before  his  Bible 
and  picks  out  his  proof  texts,  one  from  an  Old 
Testament  history,  another  from  a  Psalm,  an- 
other from  a  Gospel,  and  still  another  from  an 
Epistle;  and  by  putting  them  all  together,  he 
spells  out  and  preaches  the  doctrine  of  his  ser- 


112  SPECIAL    REQUIREMENTS   IN 

mon.  The  texts  are  taken  regardless  of  the  con- 
nections in  which  they  occur.  Some  are  used  by 
an  accommodation  of  their  real  meaning  to  the 
wants  of  the  preacher;  some  are  used  metaphori- 
cally; some  only  happen  to  have  the  same  Eng- 
lish words  as  are  used  in  the  theme  of  the  ser- 
mon. The  authors  of  the  texts  quoted  may  have 
originally  used  the  words  in  connections  totally 
different  from  one  another,  and  with  meanings 
wholly  aside  from  those  attached  to  them  by  the 
preacher.  This  is  a  misuse  and  an  abuse  of  the 
Bible  which  would  be  tolerated  of  no  other  book. 

Against  that  vulgar  prejudice  which  supposes 
a  sermon  to  be  scriptural  in  proportion  to  the 
number  of  its  allusions  to  the  Scriptures,  or  of 
its  cited  proof  texts,  an  intelligent  preacher  will 
guard  himself  as  against  a  foolish  and  mischiev- 
ous error.  Many  a  sermon  may  be  in  the  pro- 
foundest  sense  scriptural,  and  never  formally  cite 
a  text  beyond  that  on  which  it  is  founded;  and 
many  another  may  bristle  with  texts,  and  yet 
from  its  beginning  to  its  ending  be  flatly  unscript- 
ural.  A  man  shows  his  regard  for  the  Bible  as  he 
does  for  its  omniscient  Author,  not  by  wordy 
reverence,  but  by  a  conscious  and  rational  sub- 
mission of  mind  and  heart  to  all  his  known  will. 

Again,  well-trained  and  well-stored  intellects 
are  now  demanded  in  the  pulpit  as  they  never 
were  before.  Mental  discipline  is  always  an  ele- 
ment of  power.  Without  it,  the  strongest  intel- 
lect is  but  an  unstrung  bow;  it  can  speed  no 
arrow  to  its  mark.  And  no  one  more  needs  it 
than  he  whose  business  it  is  to  handle  Christian 
truth.     He   is    to    treat    of  God    and    the   divine 


THE   PREACHER    OF  OUR   TIME.  113 

purposes;  of  man  and  human  duties  and  destiny. 
He  must  take  hold  of  thoughts  that  reach 
further  and  higher  and  strike  deeper  than  any 
others  that  can  engage  the  attention  of  man. 
And  these  thoughts  he  must  present  to  audiences 
that  are  better  educated  and  better  informed, 
than  were  ever  before  addressed  since  the  church 
was  founded.  This  generation,  among  all  na- 
tions, stands  on  a  higher  level  of  intelligence 
than  any  which  has  preceded  it.  Its  religious 
teachers,  if  they  are  to  hold  its  attention,  must 
have  the  grasp  and  power  which  nothing  but 
thorough  training  can  give  them. 

And  at  the  command  of  the  trained  intellect 
should  be  real  knowledge.  It  is  a  conviction  as 
old  as  history,  that  a  religion  to  be  entitled  to 
respect  must  have  the  support  of  the  best  knowl- 
edge of  its  time.  Hence,  learning  in  the  earliest 
ages  was  in  the  hands  of  the  priesthood.  And 
the  earliest  teachers  of  Christianity  never  were 
guilty  of  the  blunder  of  denouncing  real  learning, 
or  of  ridiculing  true  science.  In  assailing  false 
science  and  philosophy,  the  language  they  used 
in  denouncing  them  distinctly  implied  the  value 
and  authority  of  true  science  and  philosophy. 
They  assailed  the  false,  because  these  had  been 
thrust  forward  into  the  place  of  the  true,  and 
above  all  had  been  pushed  into  antagonism  with 
Christianity.  The  very  method  of  apostolic  deal- 
ing with  the  science  and  philosophy  of  their  day, 
shows  how  distinctly  they  recognized  the  indivis- 
ible association  of  true  religion  with  all  sound 
knowledge  and  all  good  learning.  And  every 
genuine  successor  of  the  apostles  has  sought  dili- 


114  SPECIAL    REQUIREMENTS   IN 

gently  both  to  cultivate  his  own  mind  and  to  en- 
courage mental  culture  in  others. 

And  the  conviction  that  religion  and  knowl- 
edge, if  both  true,  must  harmonize,  was  never  so 
fixed  in  the  minds  of  men  as  it  now  is.  All  men 
regard  it  as  self-evident  that  God  cannot  contra- 
dict in  his  word  what  he  has  said  in  his  works. 
With  what  physical  science  makes  demonstra- 
bly clear  as  the  teaching  of  nature,  God's  word, 
rightly  understood,  may  justly  be  expected  to 
agree.  To  the  truth  of  not  a  little  of  the  Bible's 
teaching,  science  has  already  borne  its  testi- 
mony; and  over  still  more  it  is  throwing  the  light 
of  its  own  illustrative  interpretation. 

But  pray  do  not  here  understand  me  as  encour- 
aging formal  attempts  at  reconciliation  of  science 
and  Scripture  in  the  pulpit.  To  make  these  at- 
tempts is  not  to  preach  the  gospel;  is  to  edify  nei- 
ther scientist  nor  Christian.  Attempts  to  make 
the  Bible  teach  science  are  perversions  of  its  aim. 
To  force  its  oriental  and  poetic  forms  of  expres- 
sion into  the  cold  and  exact  terminology  of  sci- 
ence, is  to  violate  the  plainest  laws  of  interpretation 
and  the  first  principles  of  scientific  method.  And 
withal  the  attempts  are  gratuitous.  The  sciences 
most  vaunted  as  directly  opposed  to  revelation 
are  those  whose  theories  are  as  yet  too  unsettled, 
whose  conclusions  are  too  crude  and  uncertain, 
to  furnish  any  ground  for  serious  alarm.  Even 
the  attempts  that  have  been  made  to  remove  mi- 
nor discrepancies  suggested  by  the  oldest  and 
most  demonstrably  certain  of  the  sciences,  have 
not  always  been  fruitful  of  the  highest  good. 
The  value  of  the  famous  astronomical  discourses 


THF.    PREACHER    OF  OUR   TIME.  115 

of  Chalmers  cannot  be  rated  high.  The  apparent 
discrepancies  between  science  and  religion,  if  not 
magnified  by  undue  attention  to  them,  gradually- 
fade  away  before  the  light  of  advancing  knowledge. 

But  natural  science  is  only  one  of  the  many 
fields  of  knowledge  over  which  men  are  now 
roaming,  and  of  which  the  religious  teacher  is  not 
expected  to  be  wholly  ignorant.  History,  phi- 
losophy, and  literature,  all  open  wide  their  gates 
and  whosoever  will  may  enter.  They  offer  richest 
materials  illustrative  of  man's  need,  as  well  as  of 
the  power  and  glory,  of  the  religion  of  Jesus. 
From  them,  have  been  abstracted  weapons  with 
which  the  enemies  of  Christianity  have  sought 
to  destroy  it;  and  from  them  must  the  teacher  of 
religion  procure  the  only  weapons  with  which  the 
enemies  can  be  repelled.  Nor  can  he  afford  to 
omit  this  part  of  his  equipment.  A  suspicion  of 
his  ignorance  in  matters  on  which  he  may,  and 
ought  to  be,  informed  will  rob  him  of  one  ele- 
ment of  his  power.  And  yet  here,  as  in  deal- 
ing with  those  who  would  turn  natural  science 
against  Christianity,  the  business  of  the  preacher 
of  righteousness  is  not  so  much  to  beat  back  the 
enemies  of  the  Cross,  as  it  is  to  instruct  and  en- 
courage the  inquisitive  and  impartial. 

Manifestly,  he  who  is  to  retain  his  hold  on  a 
mixed  congregation  of  modern  church-goers  (and 
what  one  is  not  mixed  T),  must  be  a  well-read 
man;  a  man  who  knows  what  the  different  de- 
partments of  knowledge  are;  what  the  relation  of 
most  of  these  to  Christianity  is;  how  that  relation 
has  been  perverted;  how  it  ought  to  be  under- 
stood and  treated.     He  must  know  how  to  read 


116  SPECIAL    REQUIREMENTS    IN 

rapidly,  intelligently,  and  profitably;  how  to  tear 
through  and  tear  out  the  vitals  of  a  book  with 
dispatch.  Some  men  never  learn  how  to  read 
rapidly  and  widely.  Their  movements  are  al- 
ways by  a  way-train  that  stops  at  every  station. 
They  always  put  in  a  mark  or  turn  down  a  leaf, 
so  as  to  be  sure  and  resume  their  reading  at  the 
precise  paragraph  where  they  left  off.  They  have 
never  learned  to  run  over  a  treatise,  tripping 
lightly  where  the  land  is  sandy,  and  stopping  to 
sink  shafts  only  where  there  is  promise  of  ore. 
The  secret  of  a  happy  dispatch  of  a  book,  and  an 
intelligent  appropriation  of  its  contents,  is  a  se- 
cret which  every  man  must  learn  for  himself,  and 
can  learn  only  by  practice. 

But  there  are  two  mischievous  thoughts  which 
sometimes  get  possession  of  young  preachers, 
and  make  it  impossible  that  they  should  grow 
and  widen  with  their  years.  The  first  of  these 
lies  in  a  mistaken  notion  as  to  what  will  be  surest 
to  win  them  a  hearing.  Their  own  youthful  taste 
is  for  rhetorical  ornamentation.  This  also  readily 
wins  for  them  a  youthful  following.  The  older 
heads  of  a  congregation  in  looking  for  a  pastor, 
often  regard  it  as  all  important  that  the  man  se- 
lected shall  be  specially  acceptable  to  the  young 
people.  The  young  preacher  sees  what  he  thinks 
is  his  strong  point;  and  his  cue  is  speedily  taken. 
Thenceforward,  his  distinguishing  characteristic 
is  the  rhetorical.  His  reading  is  chiefly,  if  not 
wholly,  in  popular  literature.  His  sermons  in- 
terest rather  than  instruct.  Even  those  who 
like  them,  are  pleased  rather  than  controlled  by 
what  they  hear.     If  he  does  not  sink  into  a  mere 


THE   rREACHER    OE  OUR    TIME.  117 

sentence-maker  and  dealer  in  the  small  trinkets 
and  gewgaws  of  cheap  rhetoric,  it  will  be  because 
a  feeling  of  hidden  want,  or  some  influence  from 
without,  brings  him  to  his  senses,  and  saves  him. 

Rhetorical  ornament  is  good  if  it  be  the  natural 
adornment  of  real  and  just  thought.  Truth  is 
never  so  beautiful  as  when  standing  in  its  native 
and  unadorned  majesty.  The  highest  achievement 
of  rhetoric  is  in  so  setting  forth  truth,  that  it  shall 
appear  in  its  own  natural  dress,  color,  and  pro- 
portions. Literature  has  its  place;  but  it  is  al- 
ways after  science  and  philosophy. 

The  second  mischievous  thought  is  in  the  notion 
that  the  gospel  of  Christ  and  human  learning 
belong  wholly  to  different  spheres;  that  faith  is 
dishonored  by  an  alliance  with  knowledge;  that 
human  learning  "  corrupts  from  the  simplicity  that 
is  in  Christ."  You  will  sometimes  meet  with  men 
who  seem  to  suppose  that  they  honor  the  gospel 
in  proportion  as  they  succeed  in  throwing  dis- 
credit on  every  thought  or  truth  derived  from  any 
source  but  Scripture.  With  great  show  of  piety 
they  affect  profound  reverence  for  the  "pure  gos- 
pel," and  contempt  for  all  science  and  philoso- 
phy. This  shallow  and  transparent  cant  often 
cloaks  ignorance,  and  sometimes  a  criminal  in- 
dolence. They  who  indulge  in  it  forget  that  the 
deadliest  foes  Christianity  ever  encounters  are  its 
treacherous  friends,  bigotry,  superstition,  and 
fanaticism.  These  are  the  foes  that  fasten  on  its 
vitals;  and  nothing  but  the  sharp  surgery  of  exact 
knowledge — the  very  knowledge  that  science  and 
philosophy  and  history  furnish — can  cut  them  out. 
Be  assured,  young  gentlemen,  that  if  you  do  not 


118  SPECIAL    REQUIREMENTS   IN 

trouble  yourselves  about  science  and  philosophy 
and  history,  these  will  trouble  themselves  with 
you.  They  will  either  be  your  faithful  servants, 
or  your  implacable  foes. 

Let  the  history  of  clerical  education  in  this 
country  instruct  us.  Every  one  of  our  older  in- 
stitutions of  learning,  you  remember,  originated 
in  a  desire  to  give  to  the  clergy  the  best  possible 
education,  and  to  endow  them  with  the  largest 
possible  measure  of  the  learning  of  their  time. 
Every  sect  that,  in  its  humble  beginnings,  was 
obliged  to  recruit  its  ministry  from  the  ranks  of  the 
unlearned,  now  strives  to  its  utmost  to  secure  to 
itself  the  most  thoroughly  furnished  guides.  The 
endowments  also  of  Institutions  for  the  cultivation 
of  every  species  of  learning  are  at  once  the  wonder 
of  our  time  and  the  glory  of  our  country.  They 
are  fast  lifting  the  whole  nation  to  a  higher  level 
of  intelligence.  Woe  to  the  religious  shepherds 
that  do  not  keep  pace  with  their  flocks.  A  double 
woe  to  him  who  does  not  sec  his  opportunity  and 
the  ample  means  at  hand  for  improving  it. 

Thus  far  we  have  dwelt  on  the  requirements 
for  successful  preaching  in  all  times,  seeking  only 
to  emphasize  the  necessity  of  the  largest  attain- 
able measure  of  these  in  him  who  in  this  genera- 
tion is  to  be  the  minister  of  a  stated  congregation. 
We  have  sought  to  show  that  by  just  so  much  as 
this  generation  is  in  advance  of  those  which  have 
preceded  it,  by  so  much  ought  its  preachers  to 
be  in  advance  of  their  predecessors.  Let  us  turn 
now  to  their  minor,  but  no  less  imperative  needs, 
— needs  peculiar  to  these  times,  and  now  specially 
manifest.     They  are  needs  the  most  of  which  a 


THE    PREACHER    OF   OUR    TIME.  119 

high  degree  of  the  qualifications  we  have  dwelt 
on,  would  readily  supply.  Let  us  see  how,  com- 
bined with  a  genuine  Christian  experience,  a 
knowledge  of  the  best  results  of  all  kinds  of 
modern  learning,  will  secure  to  the  preacher  of 
our  time  certain  elements  of  power  now  too  often 
most  sadly  wanting. 

First  of  all,  it  will  enable  him  to  meet  the  uni- 
versal and  now  intensified  feeling  that  a  religion 
to  have  authority  with  men  must  have  the  support 
of  all  that  is  clearest  and  most  settled  in  their 
convictions.  It  will  show  the  world  that  Chris- 
tianity loves  light,  fall  from  whatever  quarter  it 
may;  that  it  covets  truth,  brought  whencesoever 
and  by  whomsoever  it  may  be;  that  it  is  what  it 
professes  to  be,  an  infinitely  gracious  gift  from  the 
Creator  of  the  heavens  and  the  earth,  whose  king- 
dom ruleth  over  all.  It  will  show  that  the  teachers 
of  religion,  if  not  now  as  of  old  the  sole  depositaries 
of  learning,  are  yet  its  most  earnest  supporters 
and  cultivators. 

Again,  the  pulpit  now  needs,  as  never  before, 
the  power  of  whole-hearted  convictions.  It  knows 
no  weakness  equal  to  that  of  uncertainty  and 
half-belief  And  no  conviction  is  equal  to  his 
whose  inner  life  is  being  constantly  fed  by  an  ever- 
growing knowledge  of  God  from  both  his  word 
and  his  works.  Too  many  preachers,  alas,  hang 
between  their  knowledge  and  their  faith.  They 
are  never  able  to  fuse  these  into  an  indivisible 
unity.  But  man's  nature  is  no  sea-going  steamer, 
divided  into  water-tight  compartments,  one  of 
which  may  be  broken  and  filled,  and  itself  still 
be  kept  afloat.    He  may  think  that  he  can  believe 


120  SPECIAL   REQUIREMENTS  IN 

in  his  heart  what  his  intellect  denies.  But  he 
will  float  at  the  mercy  of  every  storm  that  over- 
takes him.  If  mind  and  heart  supplement  each 
the  other,  then  his  convictions  will  impart  to  him 
an  energy  before  which  waves  and  opposing  storms 
will  serve  only  to  minister  a  steadier  movement. 

It  is  often  complained  that  the  pulpit  lacks 
freshness  and  variety;  that  its  themes  are  hack- 
neyed; its  thoughts  commonplace;  its  range  in- 
excusably narrow.  Nor  is  the  complaint  wholly 
groundless.  And  at  first  thought,  it  would  seem 
as  if  there  could  be  no  remedy.  The  gospel  is  an 
"old,  old  story."  For  more  than  eighteen  hun- 
dred years,  it  has  been  the  subject  of  incessant 
discussion  and  discourse.  Its  original  history  is 
limited;  its  doctrines  definite  and  established; 
what  new  views  can  any  preacher  be  expected 
to  give  of  it }  None  certainly,  if,  in  his  reading, 
he  is  to  be  limited.to  well-gleaned  commentaries, 
and  to  the  dusty  roads  where  all  his  hearers  are 
travelling. 

But  Christianity  reveals  to  us  an  infinite  Being, 
a  Being  in  endless  relations  to  nature,  and  an 
onward  moving  race.  Of  this  Being,  every  new 
aspect  of  nature,  and  every  shifting  phase  of  hu- 
man society,  gives  us  new  glimpses.  No  one  who 
knows  a  fraction  of  what  mankind  are  now  doing, 
can  lack  variety  of  topics  for  Christian  discourse, 
or  materials  for  setting  old  truths  in  new  lights, 
or  for  exhibiting  afresh  man's  perennial  need  of 
the  redemption  that  is  in  Christ.  The  scope  of 
the  gospel  is  unwarrantably  contracted  and  be^ 
littled  by  that  conception  of  preaching  which 
would  limit  it  to  the  ceaseless  iteration  of  a  single 


THE   PREACHER    OF  OUR   TIME.  121 

group  of  doctrines.  The  cross  should  be  made  to 
throw  its  radiance  over  the  whole  face  of  human 
society.  The  dromedaries  of  Midian,  and  the  ships 
of  Tarshish,  should  be  made  to  bring  all  their 
treasures  of  incense  and  silver  and  gold  to  the 
service  of  the  Lord.  One  most  crying  want  in 
the  average  preacher  of  our  time  is  breadth  of 
knowledge,  a  knowledge  that  can  be  acquired 
only  by  systematic  and  most  persistent  work, 
and  work  to  which  he  devotes  himself  with  the 
regularity  of  the  laborer,  whose  daily  bread  de- 
pends on  his  daily  toil. 

Acquaintance  with  what  is  true  in  science  will 
add  to  the  preacher's  knowledge  of  divine  truth. 
Both  Testaments  of  the  Bible  pre-suppose  a 
large  amount  of  moral  and  religious  knowledge 
derived  solely  from  consciousness  and  nature.  On 
this  knowledge,  the  supernatural  revelation  builds 
as  on  a  basis  of  acknowledged  truth.  But  nature 
now  speaks  through  science  as  it  could  not  when 
any  part  of  the  Bible  was  written.  Its  older  and 
mumbled  utterances  are  now  almost  articulate. 
Nature  and  revelation,  it  is  becoming  increasingly 
clear,  are  not  opposites,  but  harmonious  wholes; 
each  complements  the  other.  Any  truth  which 
the  moral  consciousness  and  nature  clearly  teaches, 
is,  therefore,  just  as  legitimately  used  in  the  pul- 
pit as  if  first  announced  in  the  Bible.  And  when 
nature  corroborates  a  doctrine  of  the  gospel,  her 
testimony  is  as  good  as  a  Scripture  text;  or  when 
a  mawkish  sentimentality  perverts  the  doctrines 
of  grace  into  an  excuse  for  license,  what  antidote 
is  equal  to  a  strong  dose  of  natural  law.^  When 
told  that  the  threatened  penalties  of  God's  law 


122  SPECIAL    REQUIREMENTS   IN 

are  only  for  reformation  and  not  for  punishment; 
that  God  is  too  merciful  to  punish  the  minor  sins 
of  men;  what  tonic  is  more  wholesome  than  a 
short,  sharp  showing  from  science  that  the  effects 
of  violated  law,  whether  physical  or  moral,  can 
be  no  more  averted  by  arbitrary  fiat  than  the 
force  of  gravitation  can  be  reversed  ?  The  great 
truth  that  reconstruction  of  human  character,  the 
salvation  of  the  soul,  must  come  through  faith  in 
a  crucified  and  a  risen  Saviour,  is  a  doctrine  to 
which  even  natural  science  can  give  its  own  in- 
dependent testimony. 

Again,  the  preaching  of  our  time  ought  to  be 
more  distinctively  doctrinal  than  it  is.  By  this 
is  certainly  not  meant  that  sermons  ought  to  be 
more  like  theological  essays  than  they  now  are. 
But  doctrines  ought  to  be  so  conceived  and  dis- 
cussed in  sermons  that  they  will  become  what 
they  really  should  be,  the  source  of  all  religious 
life  and  movement.  There  is  preaching  enough 
that  is  descriptive,  rhetorical,  sentimental,  horta- 
tory, and  expository,  but  little  that  firmly  grasps 
and  wields  the  profounder  doctrines  of  the  gospel. 
This  last,  for  many  persons,  is  not  an  easy  kind 
of  preaching;  but  it  is  a  kind  most  painfully  needed, 
and  a  kind  for  which  only  long  and  painstaking 
reading  and  thinking  can  prepare  one. 

Christianity,  as  it  now  exists  in  the  world,  is 
the  result  of  many  centuries  of  struggle  and 
growth.  As,  a  mode  of  social  and  civilized  life, 
it  has  reached  its  present  stage  through  countless 
vicissitudes.  As  a  system  of  doctrines,  it  bears 
the  marks  of  endless  controversies  and  criticisms. 
Not  one  of  its  doctrines,  as  now  held,  can  be 


THE   PREACHER    OF  OUR   TIME.  123 

fully  understood,  except  through  its  history.  All 
have  been  formulated  with  some  degree  of  philo- 
sophical accuracy;  and  all  are  arranged  into 
various  systems  according  to  the  philosophies  of 
the  systematizers.  And  every  intelligent  preacher 
of  this  age  has  his  conceptions  of  Christianity 
arranged  into  some  kind  of  system  more  or  less 
orderly,  and  more  or  less  complete. 

Now,  no  sermons  are  to  my  mind  more  dreary 
or  profitless  than  those  devoted  to  doctrines 
which  the  preacher  knows  only  by  hearsay,  or  to 
which  he  has  merely  assented  as  formulas  of  a 
creed.  He  may  have  received  them  as  a  heritage 
from  his  father,  or  as  the  heir-looms  of  his  sect. 
He  knows  nothing  of  their  inception,  or  of  their 
growth,  or  of  the  reasons  for  the  exact  terms  in 
which  they  are  now  stated,  and  very  little  of  the 
texts  on  which  they  are  founded.  He  may  dis- 
course ever  so  logically  in  support  of  them;  every 
argument  may  be  fortified  by  a  text,  and  the 
whole  be  rigidly  orthodox;  and  yet  all  be  stale, 
flat,  and  unprofitable.  So  common  is  it  now  for 
such  doctrinal  sermons  -to  fall  dead  on  an  audi- 
ence, that  young  preachers,  and  not  a  few  old 
ones,  carefully  eschew  them.  And  yet,  amid  the 
tempests  of  skepticism  that  now  beat  on  the 
church,  what  kind  of  preaching  can  be  more  ser- 
viceable than  just  that  which  shall  root  and  ground 
the  believer  in  the  eternal  verities  of  his  religion  } 

Can  such  preaching,  do  you  ask,  ever  be  made 
acceptable  and  effective?  Assuredly  it  can,  pro- 
vided that  the  doctrine  to  be  preached  shall  first 
have  been  studied  into  by  the  preacher,  both  his- 
torically and  scripturally,  and  so  felt  out  in  his 


124  SPECIAL   REQUIREMENTS  IN 

own  religious  life  that  it  has  come  to  get  hold  of 
both  his  mind  and  his  heart;  then  he  will  find  it 
the  most  effective  kind  of  preaching  he  can  adopt. 
No  one  doctrine  of  Christianity  is  a  fiction;  ev- 
ery one  embodies  an  eternal  truth.  Traditional 
statements  of  the  doctrine  may  be  open  at  every 
syllable  to  criticism;  but  work  your  way  through 
its  verbal  form  down  to  the  bed-rock  of  its  truth. 
Planting  your  feet  there,  you  will  feel  the  firmness 
of  the  eternal  foundations.  You  will  then  preach 
with  an  assurance,  and  a  force  of  conviction,  and 
a  power  of  persuasion,  that  will  surprise  yourself 
and  startle  your  hearers. 

The  demand  is  now  every  day  growing  more 
emphatic  that  he  who  will  preach  the  gospel  shall 
give  evidence  of  an  established  and  consistent 
character.  And  the  demand  is  most  reasonable. 
The  preacher  of  salvation  to  others  ought  to 
present  in  himself  some  faint  semblance  of  the 
salvation  proposed.  The  conviction  is  every  day 
gaining  ground,  is  already  deep-seated  in  many 
minds,  that  the  best,  the  enduring,  results  of 
preaching  are  not  to  be  looked  for  in  those  sudden 
gusts  of  emotion  awakened  by  the  preacher's  skill, 
but  in  those  abiding  impressions  produced  by 
weight  of  character  and  not  by  wit  of  words. 
Nor  does  this  conviction  forget  that  the  saving 
efficacy  of  all  preaching  is  through  the  renewing 
agency  of  the  creative  Spirit.  It  believes  that 
the  Spirit  works  through  words,  but  that  he  works 
most  of  all  through  the  characters  of  those  in  whom 
he  dwells. 

All  character  is  an  organism  and  a  growth,  as 
much  so  as  is  the  human  body.     At  its  centre 


THE  PREACHER    OF  OUR    TIME.  125 

is  its  creative  or  organific  spirit;  every  man  being 
in  reality  just  what  the  innermost  belief  of  his 
soul  makes  him.  The  materials  out  of  which 
character  is  formed  He  in  all  those  activities, 
temptations,  and  trials  which  make  up  the  disci- 
pline of  life.  Out  of  such  materials  the  innermost 
faith  that  is  in  you,  young  gentlemen,  has  been 
forming,  is  now  forming,  your  characters.  And 
the  characters  you  will  have  formed,  will  be  the 
living  epistles  by  which  men  will  determine  your 
divine  commission  to  preach.  After  the  age  at 
which  you  have  now  arrived,  radical  changes  in 
your  characters  will  be  rare.  But  if  change  comes, 
it  will  come  only  when  there  has  been  change  at 
the  centre  of  the  soul, — a  change  in  the  formative 
principles  of  the  whole  being. 

The  constructive  forces  of  given  types  of  char- 
acter are  necessarily  the  same  with  all  men  and 
in  all  times.  They  are  so  because  human  nature 
is  everywhere  the  same.  It  is  with  the  preacher 
of  the  gospel  as  with  all  other  men.  But  the 
demand  is  that  his  character  shall  be  exception- 
ally high.  It  is  required  that  it  shall  not  only  be 
exalted  and  unimpeachable,  but  also  transparent 
and  symmetrical.  The  obstructive  forces  to  be 
overcome  by  him  may  be  more  subtle  and  dan- 
gerous than  those  of  other  men;  but  to  no  one 
else  is  failure  so  absolutely  fatal.  We  can  here 
indicate  but  two  out  of  the  many  sources  of  his 
danger,  and  these  specially  of  the  pastor.  The 
first  is  a  temptation  to  think  too  much  of  him- 
self; the  second  to  have  too  much  regard  for  his 
auditors. 

The  desire  to  be  well  thought  of  is  natural;  and 


126  SPECIAL    REQUIREMENTS  IN 

Christianity  does  not  condemn  it.  Within  certain 
limits,  the  desire  is  both  useful  and  wholesome.  It 
becomes  dangerous  the  moment  it  grows  into 
craving  for  applause.  Like  any  other  perverted 
principle,  its  perversion  corrupts  and  turns  into 
deadly  evil  the  very  good  it  is  capable  of  But  a 
reputation  worth  coveting  never  comes  to  him 
who  directly  seeks  it.  If  it  comes  at  all,  it 
comes  only  as  a  reward  to  honest  and  self- 
forgetful  work.  He  who  thinks  only  of  making  a 
reputation  for  himself,  may  attract  attention;  but 
it  will  be  attention  to  the  pasteboard  front  of  a 
wretched  hovel.  And  he  who  enters  the  pulpit 
as  a  clerical  flirt,  coquetting  for  popular  applause, 
will  finally  leave  it  as  a  detected  cheat. 

I  remember  many  years  ago,  in  a  short  pastorate 
which  divine  Providence  allotted  to  me,  there  was 
residing  in  the  city  where  I  was,  a  gentleman  who 
had  formerly  been  a  very  noted  preacher.  His 
reputation  had  come  down  from  thirty  years 
preceding  as  that  of  a  preacher  of  remarkable 
eloquence.  He  was  then  a  retired  clergyman; 
and  I  asked  him  one  day  if  he  would  preach  for 
me.  He  preached;  and  no  sooner  had  he  finished, 
than,  turning  to  me,  he  asked:  "  How  did  it  go  } " 
Afterwards  I  asked  him  to  preach  again.  "Oh, 
no,"  he  replied;  "I  made  a  good  impression,  and 
I  don't  want  to  impair  it."  It  was  a  revelation 
of  the  man;  vanity  had  ruled  him  in  his  earlier 
days,  and  in  his  old  age  had  eaten  out  the  core 
of  him. 

A  second  danger  lies  in  his  flock.  For  many 
things,  a  pastor  is  dependent  on  his  people.  He 
will  be  more  than  human  if  their  wishes  do  not 


THE   PREACHER    OF  OUR   TIME.  127 

sometimes  influence  him.  It  is  incredible  that 
his  character  should  be  in  no  danger  of  being 
warped  thereby.  The  proverb,  "  Like  people, 
like  priest,"  as  well  as  its  reverse,  can  show  its 
striking  illustrations.  The  pastor  will  also  be 
more  than  fortunate  if  the  will,  or  character,  or 
conduct,  or  wealth,  of  some  hearer  does  not  lie  as 
an  obstacle  in  the  way  of  his  success.  He  may 
succumb,  and  yield,  and  so  compound  with  his 
conscience;  or,  losing  his  temper  and  abandoning 
his  claim  to  the  spirit  either  of  Christian  or  gen- 
tleman, he  may,  as  the  last  resort  of  the  morally 
feeble,  indulge  in  personalities  in  his  sermons.  In 
either  case,  his  character  suffers  detriment. 

But  to  keep  his  integrity,  and  to  fill  out  his 
character  into  completeness  and  strength,  the 
Christian  minister  must  have  certain  fixed  and 
broad  principles  of  action.  First  and  foremost 
must  be  an  unswerving  loyalty  to  Christ.  He  is 
Christ's  servant,  Christ's  messenger,  and  Christ's 
representative.  At  the  very  centre  of  his  being 
must  be  the  settled  conviction  that,  come  what 
may,  no  deed,  nor  word,  nor  purpose,  nor  thought 
of  his,  shall  ever  be  contrary  to  what  Christ  has 
bidden  him.  But  as  safeguards  to  that  central 
power  of  his  soul,  other  and  additional  principles 
must  hold  him  in  his  relations  with  men.  What 
shall  these  be  i*. 

The  French  philosopher,  D'Alembert,  has  been 
quoted  as  saying  that  "the  motto  of  a  literary 
man  should  be  liberty,  truth,  and  poverty;  and 
that  whoever  is  afraid  of  the  last,  will  never  be 
possessor  of  the  first  two."  The  inventory  is  not 
exhaustive  of  the  principles  of  a  noble  character. 


128  SPECIAL    REQUIREMENTS  IN 

It  is  more  striking  than  accurate.  Make  it  lib- 
erty, truth,  and  perfect  contentment  with  whatever 
fidelity  to  these  may  bring  with  it,  and  you  have 
a  motto  that  will  answer  till  you  can  enlarge  it 
into  a  better.  It  will  serve  as  a  basis  for  our 
present  grouping  of  some  of  the  principles  of 
action  whereby  the  preacher  may  preserve  to 
himself  the  integrity  of  his  character. 

He  should  be  intent  on  preserving  that  liberty, 
or  personal  freedom,  with  which  Christ  has  en- 
dowed him;  freedom  from  practice  of  moral  evil, 
from  selfish  aims  in  life,  from  the  dictation  of  man, 
from  undue  regard  for  the  opinions  of  men;  free- 
dom from  everything  but  the  yoke  of  Christ;  from 
whatever  would  hinder  the  freest  and  fullest 
discharge  of  all  the  duties  of  a  preacher  of  the 
religion  of  Jesus.  So,  also,  fidelity  to  truth  should 
be  so  fixed  in  his  heart  that  no  bribe  can  move 
him  a  hair's  breadth  from  what  he  conceives  to 
be  its  exact  requirements.  With  personal  freedom 
thus  prized  and  preserved,  and  with  a  loving  obe- 
dience to  truth  thus  kept  alive  in  the  heart,  all 
unwarrantable  regard  for  self  or  others  will  be 
impossible.  The  thousand  elements  that  make  up 
every  true  type  of  manhood,  will  come  together 
within  him  by  mutual  affinity.  The  completed 
product  will  be  apparent  to  all  men.  Its  power 
none  will  be  able  to  gainsay. 

And  it  is  easy  to  see  what  is  always  sure  to 
come  personally  to  one  whose  sense  of  freedom 
is  complete,  and  whose  attitude  is  always  that 
of  joyous  welcome  to  every  truth,  as  to  a  mes- 
senger from  heaven.  There  will  be  serenity  and 
strength   and   courage   and   gentleness  and  pa- 


THE   PREACHER    OF  OUR   TIME.  129 

tience,  of  which  no  adversity  can  rob  him. 
Christ's  unclouded  presence  within  him  will  ir- 
radiate every  avenue  of  his  soul.  Standing  up  as 
a  preacher,  the  majesty  of  God  and  of  his  Christ 
will  so  rise  before  him  that  self  and  all  human  in- 
terests will  sink  from  his  sight.  Filled  with  a 
sense  of  his  awful  trust  as  an  ambassador  for 
Christ,  he  may  speak  with  a  fidelity  that  will 
start  men  from  their  seats;  and  not  a  tongue  will 
wag  itself  against  him.  It  will  be  the  character 
of  the  man  standing  behind  his  words  that  will 
give  them  power.  To  such  a  preacher,  no  con- 
gregation of  Christian  people  will  fail  to  give 
heed;  and  on  such  the  blessing  of  God  is  abso- 
lutely certain  to  rest.  But,  on  the  other  hand, 
can  you  think  of  anything  more  pitiable,  any- 
thing to  make  good  men  and  angels  sooner  weep, 
than  that  one,  who  has  power  to  handle  truth 
effectively,  whose  tears  and  choking  utterance 
apparently  reveal  profound  emotion,  who  seems 
almost  to  bring  heaven  down  to  earth  in  his 
sermons,  should  yet  be  one  whose  heart  is  hol- 
low and  empty,  and  who  plays  on  the  sensibili- 
ties of  his  hearers  as  a  skilful  musician  plays  on 
the  strings  of  his  instrument.  The  demand  is 
every  day  becoming  more  imperative  that  the 
Christian  teacher  who  will  claim  a  right  to  be 
heard  shall  first  furnish  in  himself  some  practical 
illustration  of  the  virtues  he  would  inculcate  in 
others.  The  man  must  be  more  than  his  words; 
or  his  words  will  be  wind,  and  himself  be  despised 
as  a  fraud. 

In  close  connection  with  the  demand  for  per- 
sonal worth  in  the  preacher,  is  the  necessity  that 


130  SPECIAL    REQUIREMENTS   IN 

his  sermons  be  level  with  his  experience.  The 
topics  to  be  discoursed  on  have  come,  of  course, 
by  revelation,  and  transcend  all  human  experi- 
ence; but  for  the  preacher  to  ply  his  audience 
with  arguments  and  considerations  uninformed 
by  that  spirit  which  his  own  experience  alone 
can  supply,  is  to  waste  his  words  and  to  mis- 
use his  office.  Nor  can  there  be  any  successful 
counterfeit  of  the  spirit  which  experience  gives. 
Strong  language  and  vehemence  of  tone  only  be- 
tray its  absence.  The  voice  of  the  parrot,  be  it 
ever  so  distinct,  is  easily  distinguished  from  the 
human.  When  the  book  of  John  Angell  James, 
on  "  An  Earnest  Ministry,"  was  published,  some 
thirty  years  ago,  many  a  young  man  set  himself 
to  a  diligent  cultivation  of  an  earnest  manner. 
A  more  direct  method  of  self-enfeeblement  could 
hardly  have  been  adopted.  All  true  earnestness 
springs  unconsciously  from  the  heart  that  is 
moved  by  strong  convictions. 

Strange  and  melancholy  experiences  sometimes 
come  to  young  men  who  enter  the  Christian  min- 
istry with  the  purest  of  motives  and  the  highest 
of  aims.  They  have  accepted  with  all  honesty 
of  heart  the  creed  of  their  sect.  To  every  arti- 
cle, so  far  as  they  have  understood  it,  they  have 
yielded  a  hearty  assent.  They  are  conscientious- 
ly anxious  to  prove  themselves  strictly  ortho- 
dox. They  enter  the  pastoral  office  and  begin 
to  preach  their  creed  according  to  their  under- 
standing of  it.  The  influences  of  the  time  are 
not  in  harmony  with  the  terms  of  the  creed 
they  are  pledged  to  support.  Their  convictions 
are  weakened;  and  though  their  words  still  re- 


THE   PREACHER   OF  OUR   TIME.  131 

main  orthodox,  the  spirit  of  orthodoxy  is  not  in 
them.     Their  sermons 

Are  shouted  from  the  pulpit  back  and  forth, 
In  such  wise  that  the  lambs,  who  do  not  know. 
Come  back  from  pasture  fed  upon  the  wind. 

Few  personal  histories  are  more  sadly  instruc- 
tive on  this  point,  than  that  of  Frederick  W. 
Robertson.  Bred  among  the  evangelical  portion 
of  the  Anglican  Church,  he  entered  its  ministry 
with  the  most  devout  of  intentions,  and  began 
as  the  most  orthodox  of  preachers.  He  was  an 
earnest  and  faithful  preacher,  a  devoted  and  dil- 
igent pastor  at  Winchester,  at  Cheltenham,  and 
at  Oxford;  and  with  very  small  results.  Nothing 
could  be  sadder  than  the  agony  of  doubt  into 
which  he  found  himself  plunged  when  the  foun- 
dations of  his  faith  gave  way  from  beneath  him, 
and  he  saw  the  beliefs  in  which  he  had  been  ed- 
ucated, and  which  he  had  been  preaching,  vanish 
like  thin  mist  in  the  air.  He  found  that  he  had 
been  laboriously  preaching  what  he  only  knew 
by  hearsay.  When  afterwards,  with  a  few  broken 
truths  which  he  had  clutched  with  all  the  energy 
of  a  drowning  man,  he  went  before  an  audience 
at  Brighton,  he  discoursed  on  these  with  a  fresh- 
ness, and  force,  and  unction,  that  compelled  the 
attention  of  all  classes  and  conditions  of  men. 
And  whence  this  new  power  .''  Certainly  not  be- 
cause he  now  preached  truth,  and  had  previously 
preached  fiction;  but  simply  because  his  preach- 
ing was  now  level  to  his  experience.  Every 
word  that  came  from  his  lips  was  like  molten  lava 
from  the  mouth  of  a  volcano.     His  whole  inner 


132  SPECIAL    REQUIREMENTS   IN 

being  was  fused  to  a  white  heat.  And  through 
every  successive  year  of  the  ministry  that  re- 
mained to  him  before  death  called  him,  there 
was  a  steady  and  manifest  regress  towards  the 
sentiments  from  which  he  had  seemed  so  wholly 
to  revolt.  Be  assured  it  is  not  orthodoxy  that 
will  make  you  tame  and  spiritless;  but  feeding  on 
the  husks  of  truth  instead  of  its  kernels.  If  you 
will  have  Robertson's  power,  let  the  truth  you 
preach  set  your  hearts  ablaze  as  it  did  his;  and 
possibly  the  people  will  be  glad  to  bask  in  your 
light  and  warmth  as  they  did  in  his. 

One  of  the  most  painful  and  perplexing  facts 
connected  with  the  Christian  ministry  of  our  day, 
is  the  large  and  constantly  growing  number  to 
whom  the  churches  are  disinclined  to  give  any 
permanent  employment.  The  fact  is  common  to 
every  division  of  the  Protestant  Church.  The 
most  varied  explanations  have  been  given  of  it. 
No  remedy  for  the  evil  seems  to  be  immediately 
at  hand.  But  the  question  is  at  least  worth  ask- 
ing, whether,  if  the  word  of  the  Lord  come  to  man 
with  such  consuming  energy  that  he  is  forced  to 
cry  aloud  and  spare  not,  some  church  will  not  be 
ready  and  eager  to  hear  him  .''  And,  in  asking  the 
question,  I  do  not  forget  that  a  craving  for  change 
and  sensation  has  created  a  distaste  for  regular 
and  wholesome  instruction.  A  wandering  evan- 
gelist who  in  a  few  weeks  can  reap  a  scanty 
harvest  from  the  untilled  field,  is  preferred  to  the 
wise  husbandman,  who  can  sow  as  well  as  reap. 
They  forget  that  any  kind  of  workman  can  reap, 
but  only  a  well-trained  eye  and  a  steady  hand 
can  be  trusted  to  sow.     And  yet,  no  harm  would 


THE  PREACHER   OF  OUR   TIME.  133 

be  done  if  here  and  there  an  idle  laborer  should 
be  so  inflamed  with  a  desire  to  plough  and  sow, 
as,  uninvited,  to  force  some  fallow  field  into  tillage 
and  crop-bearing;  possibly  the  doing  this  might 
prompt  some  pastorless  church  to  invite  him  to 
a  settlement. 

In  conclusion,  let  me  say  that  it  is  a  living 
Christianity  which  this  age  needs,  and  which  it 
will  have,  or  it  will  have  none  at  all.  It  is  impatient 
of  all  shams,  and  will  give  no  heed  to  the  empty 
sepulchre  from  which  Christ  has  risen.  It  wishes 
to  see  the  living  Lord  himself.  And  of  what 
avail  will  be  our  equipments  and  accomplishments, 
if  we  know  not  the  personal  Christ  .■*  It  was  by 
him  that  the  life  of  religion  was  begun  in  us;  by 
him  alone  that  the  life  can  be  continued  and  per- 
fected in  us;  by  him  alone  that  our  work  as  his 
ministers  can  be  successfully  prosecuted;  by  him 
that  we  and  our  work  at  the  last  shall  be  judged; 
and  in  him  that  at  the  end  we  and  all  things  shall 
find  consummation.  Let  our  watchword  be  to 
the  men  of  this  generation,  what  that  of  the 
Apostles  was  to  the  men  of  their  time:  Jesus  and 
the  Resurrection. 


LECTURE   VI. 

S  E  R  M  O  N-M  A  K  I  N  G  . 

In  introducing  the  lecture  this  afternoon,  it  may 
not  be  inappropriate  to  say  that,  when  the  pres- 
ent lecturer  received  his  appointment  to  give  the 
course  of  this  year,  it  was  his  misfortune  not  to 
have  read  the  lectures  of  his  predecessors.  To 
avoid  embarrassment,  it  then  seemed  desirable 
not  to  read  them  till  his  own  had  been  delivered. 
It  is  not  pleasant  to  know  that  you  are  telling  a 
familiar  story.  And  in  so  many  courses  of  lec- 
tures, on  a  theme  so  limited  as  that  of  preaching, 
it  is  hardly  possible  that  there  should  not  be  de- 
veloped a  considerable  degree  of  sameness  as  well 
as  of  diversity  of  thought.  In  the  present  course 
of  lectures,  however,  your  attention,  it  must  be 
admitted,  has  thus  far  been  invited  to  certain  ends 
to  be  accomplished  by  preaching,  and  to  the  re- 
quisite qualifications  of  preachers  who  are  to  ac- 
complish the  ends,  rather  than  to  preaching  itself. 
But  the  lectureship  was  originally  established  for 
the  special  benefit  of  those  who  are  to  preach. 
Some  discussion,  therefore,  of  the  methods  of 
sermon-making,  may  justly  be  expected  in  any 


SERMON  MAKING.  135 

course  which  is  intended  to  fulfil  the  original  de- 
sign. At  the  risk,  then,  of  travelling  over  familiar 
ground,  let  the  subject  of  our  present  lecture  be, 
the  process  of  making  a  sermon;  or,  in  more  am- 
bitious phraseology,  the  best  method  of  sermon- 
building. 

And  there  are  good  reasons  why  this  topic 
should  receive  special  attention.  A  bad  method 
in  sermonizing  is  sometimes  equivalent  to  errone- 
ous thought;  it  often  results  in  a  waste  of  thought, 
and  always  in  a  loss  of  power.  A  vicious  method 
always  reacts  on  the  mental  powers  to  their  det- 
riment, just  as  an  unnatural  gait  in  walking  reacts 
on  the  muscles  of  locomotion  to  their  weariness 
and  an  imperfect  performance  of  their  functions. 
There  are  some  methods  of  sermon-making  which 
no  man  can  practice  and  retain  either  self-respect 
or  moral  honesty.  A  good  method  of  thought  is 
always  the  first  condition  of  good  thinking,  and 
of  right  understanding  on  the  part  of  the  audi- 
ence, and  consequently  of  all  thoroughly  good 
preaching. 

Whatever  may  be  one's  mode  of  procedure  in 
the  after  construction  of  a  sermon,  there  can  be 
but  one  first  step  with  all  men;  and  that  is  the 
selection  of  a  subject,  or  of  a  text,  or  of  both. 
But  with  these  selected,  diverse  methods  are  pos- 
sible, and  have  their  advocates.  Let  us  look  at 
a  few  of  them. 

One  very  common  method  sometimes  recom- 
mended in  homiletical  text-books  is  the  following: 
The  selected  text  or  topic  is  turned  over  in  the 
mind,  and  whatever  happens  to  occur  to  one  in 
his  reflections  is  jotted  down.     The   process   is 


136  SERMON  MAKING. 

kept  up  till  materials  enough  for  a  discourse  ap- 
pear to  have  been  collected.  The  whole  is  then 
arranged  into  some  kind  of  order.  But  the  ma- 
terials thus  collected,  except  in  cases  where  a 
chronological  order  is  forced  on  the  attention,  are 
necessarily  heterogeneous,  and  without  logical 
connection.  The  first  thought  that  came  may- 
have  been  suggested  by  the  law  of  association;  the 
second  and  third  by  the  principle  of  contrast  or 
resemblance:  another  thought  may  have  sprung 
from  a  single  word  of  the  text,  and  another  from 
the  circumstances  under  which  the  text  was 
originally  spoken,  or  from  its  connection  with  the 
train  of  thought  of  which  it  forms  a  part;  and 
another  still  from  the  benefits  likely  to  flow  from 
acceptance  of  what  the  text  teaches.  The  prob- 
abilities are  as  ten  to  one,  that  the  thoughts 
collected  will  be  a  medley  which  no  amount  of 
elaboration  can  reduce  to  unity.  There  may  be 
the  semblance  of  unity;  but  it  will  be  the  unity 
of  conglomeration,  and  not  of  organic  growth. 
You  have  seen  a  beetle  in  the  road-bed  on  a 
summer  day,  with  its  head  down  and  hind  feet 
up,  most  industriously  rolling  backwards  over 
and  over,  an  earth  ball  which  slowly  grew  in  bulk 
as  it  rolled.  It  is  not  an  unfit  emblem  of  a  ser- 
mon made  in  the  manner  we  have  described.  It 
has  unity  of  form,  but  not  of  substance.  It  grev/, 
like  the  sermon,  by  accretion,  by  a  blind  tumbling 
of  the  thing  over  and  over  in  the  dust  of  the  road. 
It  hides  at  its  centre  a  worthless  larva,  which  you 
can  find  only  by  cleaving  the  whole  asunder. 
We  all  have  heard  such  sermons.  They  are  not 
uncommon.     Rounded  into  apparent  harmon}-  of 


SERMON  MAKING.  137 

form,  their  purpose  hidden,  they  leave  no  distinct 
impression  on  the  minds  of  the  hearers.  Of  all 
sermons,  they  are  the  ones  a  pastor  can  repeat 
without  fear  of  recognition. 

A  second  method  is,  having  a  text  or  topic,  to 
rummage  among  books  for  thoughts.  First,  as 
many  commentaries  as  may  be  at  hand  are  ex- 
amined for  doctrinal  and  practical  suggestions, — 
and  many  of  the  later  ones  are  not  parsimonious 
in  their  hints.  The  next  resort  is  to  volumes  of 
sermons, — those  least  valuable,  and,  to  the  weak, 
the  most  treacherous  of  all  the  books  a  min- 
ister of  the  gospel  can  gather  into  his  library. 
Tables  of  contents  and  indexes  are  diligently 
searched,  for  whole  discourses  or  single  thoughts 
bearing  on  his  text,  or  his  subject;  and  whatever 
is  pertinent  is  appropriated.  Years  ago,  there 
was  a  distinguished  preacher  in  one  of  our  New 
England  cities — his  name  is  still  kept  fresh  as 
the  prenomen  of  many  a  worthy  man — whose 
sermons  were  uniformly  made  in  this  way.  He 
now  has  imitators  in  other  cities  than  those  of 
New  England.  When  making  a  sermon,  his  li- 
brary floor  would  be  covered  with  partly  opened 
books,  standing  end-wise,  and  waiting  to  be 
culled  from.  His  sermons  were  always  fresh, 
piquant  (he  was  fond  of  South),  and  sometimes 
brilliant.  But  they  were  like  patch-work,  much 
more  ornamental  than  useful.  They  pleased  the 
unlettered;  but  they  trained  none  into  habits  of 
clear,  connected  and  careful  thinking.  He  left 
no  sermons  worth  reading.  And  I  have  known 
men  to  defend  this  unacknowledged  appropria- 
tion of  other  men's  thoujjhts.     I  remember  one 


138  SERMON  MAKING. 

such.  He  was  not,  thank  heaven,  a  native  Amer- 
ican, but  came  from,  and  was  educated,  beyond 
the  seas.  When  once  asked  what  he  thought  of 
the  morality  of  such  appropriations,  whether  He 
regarded  them  as  defensible,  he  replied:  "Most 
assuredly  I  do.  If  I  buy  a  book  and  pay  for  it, 
its  contents  are  my  property;  and  I  have  perfect 
right  to  make  such  use  of  them  as  I  please."  It 
is  needless  to  add  that  he  put  his  principles  in 
practice. 

Another  method,  with  nothing  to  commend  it, 
and  everything  to  condemn  it,  is  to  take  a  skele- 
ton plan,  text  and  all,  from  a  mis-named  "  Pulpit 
Assistant,"  or  a  "Pulpit  Encyclopaedia" — books 
which  no  intelligent  or  self-respecting  minister 
would  permit  himself  to  own,  much  less  to  use. 
On  this  skeleton  framework,  the  preacher  hangs 
his  bits  of  thought  and  anecdote,  as  he  would 
pieces  of  clothing  on  a  lay  figure.  But  no  skill 
can  galvanize  the  whole  into  the  semblance  of 
life.  No  sermons  are  ordinarily  more  worthless. 
Like  other  stolen  property,  no  amount  of  disguise 
can  give  ownership  to  the  possessor.  The  hands 
maybe  Esau's;  but  the  voice  will  be  Jacob's.  And, 
though  such  sermons  are  by  no  means  so  uncom- 
mon among  a  certain  class  of  preachers  as  one 
at  first  thought  might  be  disposed  to  believe,  to 
the  discerning  they  are  not  difficult  of  detection. 

Another  very  common  method,  and  one  every 
way  more  respectable  than  either  of  the  three 
preceding,  is  for  the  preacher  to  lay  down  for 
himself  at  the  outset  of  his  thinking,  a  plan  ac- 
cording to  which  all  the  thoughts  of  his  discourse 
are  to  be  arranged.     The  plan  serves  as  a  mold 


SERMON  MAKING.  139 

into  which  his  thoughts  are  to  be  poured.  It  is, 
of  course,  arbitrary,  having  been  made  before 
what  is  to  be  said  under  it  has  been  thought  out. 
Being  arbitrary,  it  is  also  artificial;  and  being 
artificial,  it  prevents  a  free  and  natural  flow  of 
thought.  No  one  can  make  sermons  in  this  way 
without  betraying  himself  into  the  habit  of  always 
making  them  after  one  or  another  of  a  very  small 
number  of  given  patterns.  No  matter  what  the 
theme,  nor  what  the  aim,  nor  what  the  style  of 
thought,  all  must  come  under  a  given  kind,  and 
a  given  number,  and  a  given  order,  of  heads.  And 
yet,  many  persons  have  no  other  idea  of  a  plan  or 
a  skeleton  of  a  sermon  than  that  of  an  order  of 
thought,  which  has  thus  been  decided  on  before 
thinking  has  made  plain  what  the  order  of  thought 
ought  to  be.  Even  so  clear-headed  and  highly 
educated  a  man  as  the  late  Dr.  James  W.  Alex- 
ander, one  of  the  most  scholarly  and  accomplished 
divines  and  preachers  that  has  yet  graced  an 
American  pulpit,  seems  all  his  life  long  to  have 
been  haunted  byjust  this  idea  of  a  "  preconcerted," 
or  "  precomposed  plan."  In  that  posthumous  vol- 
ume, "  Thoughts  on  Preaching,"  gathered  from 
his  writings  and  scrap-book,  and  in  which  there 
is  many  a  golden  nugget  of  thought,  he  is  con- 
tinually protesting  against  writing  according  to 
such  a  plan;  but  never  a  hint  escapes  him  that  a 
plan  could  be  otherwise  than  "preconcerted,"  or 
that  the  order  of  thought  is  not  just  as  essential 
as  thought  itself;  that  without  logical  arrange- 
ment, half  the  force  of  thought  is  in  fact  lost,  and 
the  sermon  as  a  whole,  to  the  same  degree  fails 
of  its  end. 


140  SERMON  MAKING. 

Another  method,  unlike  all  that  we  have  named 
and  sometimes  advocated  in  opposition  to  the 
last  mentioned,  proposes  that  one  shall  rumi- 
nate on  the  text  or  subject  of  discourse,  till  some 
definite  thought  or  thoughts  occur  to  him,  and 
that  then  he  shall  begin  to  write,  letting  the 
thoughts  flow  on  as  they  will.  Not  a  few  schol- 
arly and  literary  men  pursue  this  method.  I  have 
at  this  moment  in  mind  certain  gentlemen  of  high 
culture  who  always  write  in  this  way,  whether  it 
be  sermon,  or  any  other  kind  of  discourse  or 
essay  which  they  have  in  hand.  Their  thoughts 
refuse  to  flow  until,  with  pen  in  hand,  they  actu- 
ally begin  to  write.  This  method  was  warmly 
commended  by  Dr.  Alexander,  in  the  "Thoughts" 
just  now  referred  to,  and,  judging  by  his  published 
discourses,  was  the  one  he  usually  practiced, 
though  he  often  both  thought  and  spoke  without 
writing,  and  counted  it  a  defect  in  any  mind  that 
could  not  think  without  the  pen.  And  for  ser- 
mons that  are  to  be  read  at  the  fireside  rather 
than  listened  to  in  the  pew,  this  method  of  com- 
posing has  its  merits.  The  mind  in  reading  is 
pleased  at  being  led  in  circuitous  and  unexpected 
paths.  There  then  is  leisure  for  the  little  by-ways 
of  thought  which  we  should  be  impatient  at  be- 
ing taken  into  by  a  preacher  to  whom  we  were 
listening,  but  into  which  our  curiosity  is  gratified 
at  being  led  as  readers.  Many  is  the  modern 
book  of  religious  essays  which  evidently  had  first 
done  indifferent  service  as  sermons  in  the  pulpit, 
and  beyond  all  question  had  been  composed  by 
minds  that  ambled  and  meandered  according  to 
their  own  sweet  wills.     And,  as  essays,  they  are 


SERMON  MAKING.  141 

all  the  more  picturesque  for  the  irregularity  of 
their  lines  of  thought;  just  as  a  brook  in  a  mea- 
dow, winding  like  a  slight  and  silvery  thread, 
now  hidden  among  the  bushes,  and  now  gleam- 
ing in  the  sunlight  amid  flowers  and  the  green 
grass,  is  much  more  beautiful  to  look  at  than  a 
straight  channel,  however  full  and  deep  and 
strong  and  swift  the  current  that  runs  in  it.  But 
a  sermon  is  to  be  judged  of  solely  by  its  fitness 
to  its  end.  Its  purpose  is  to  enlighten  and  con- 
vince, and  not  merely  to  entertain  and  to  please. 
The  preacher  is  supposed  to  have  a  definite  end 
in  view,  and  only  a  limited  time  in  which  to  ac- 
complish it.  The  more  direct  his  steps  towards 
it,  the  more  likely  his  auditors  will  be  to  accom- 
pany him.  And  they  have  a  right  to  know  what 
his  aim  is,  and  to  demand  that  he  shall  take  a 
straight-forward  and  open  road  to  reach  it.  He 
need  not  blunt  the  edge  of  their  curiosity  by  tell- 
ing them  at  the  outset  what  all  his  arguments 
are  to  be;  but,  the  moment  the  movement  of  his 
thought  begihs,  it  should  be  movement  with  prog- 
ress. There  are  few  things  of  which  audiences 
are  more  impatient  than  labored  movement,  and 
no  apparent  advance.  To  spin  tops  or  play  hide- 
and-seek  among  bushes  may  be  suitable  amuse- 
ments in  suitable  places;  but  the  places  are  not 
in  the  pulpit. 

But  if  neither  of  the  methods  thus  far  considered 
be  commendable,  is  there  any  one  that  can  be 
commended  as  best  for  all  minds  .^  Should  not 
every  one  follow  his  own  bent  .'*  Is  not  untram- 
meled  nature  preferable  to  any  one  uniform 
method."*     Yes,  certainly;  provided  that  "bent" 


142  SERMON  MAKING. 

and  "  nature "  signify  anything  else  than  mere 
habits  accidentally  or  heedlessly  formed.  There 
are,  however,  certain  conditions  without  which 
lucid  and  just  thought  can  be  insured  to  no  one; 
and  it  is  just  as  easy  to  understand  these  condi- 
tions and  comply  with  them,  and  so  to  think 
clearly  and  accurately,  as  it  is  to  neglect  them, 
and  so  to  find  •  ourselves  often  in  bewilderment 
and  confusion.  And  in  no  place  known  among 
men  is  there  at  this  moment  a  greater  demand 
for  clear  and  just  thought  than  in  the  pulpit. 

There  are  two  general  classes  of  sermons, 
commonly  known  as  topical  and  textual;  and 
the  distribution  may  be  regarded  as  accurate 
enough  for  our  present  purposes.  Let  us  begin 
with  the  topical.  Suppose  a  topic  with  its  text 
to  have  been  chosen.  What  shall  be  the  next 
step .''  Manifestly,  it  should  be  to  decide,  as 
definitely  as  possible,  just  what  we  propose  to 
accomplish  by  the  discourse.  And,  the  more 
exactly  that  purpose  can  be  defined,  the  better. 
And  better  still,  the  more  specific  the  theme, 
the  greater  the  likelihood  of  freshness  and  fullness 
in  the  treatment  of  it,  and  of  distinctness  of 
impression  and  conviction  with  the  hearers.  One 
can  say  much  more  that  is  specific  and  fresh 
about  a  single  flower  than  about  a  whole  bouquet, 
or  about  a  single  stalk  and  head  of  wheat  than 
about  a  whole  sheaf  But  definiteness  and  sin- 
gleness of  purpose  are  attainable  only  through 
careful  analysis;  and  this  analysis  which  helps 
one  to  definiteness  and  singleness  of  purpose  will 
bring  him  also  into  possession  of  the  materials  by 
which  his  purpose  is  to  be  accomplished. 


SERMON  MAKING.  143 

Let  me  illustrate  by  an  example:  Suppose  I 
wish  to  preach  on  man's  inexcusableness  before 
God.  The  question  arises,  what  shall  be  my 
theme;  shall  it  be  inexcusableness  of  man  for 
his  sins,  or  for  his  unbelief,  or  for  his  non-accept- 
ance of  the  offers  of  the  gospel  ?  Everything  in 
the  discussion  will  depend  on  the  choice  I  make; 
and  I  can  choose  intelligently,  only  after  careful 
examination  of  what  the  phraseology  of  each  is 
intended  to  express.  Let  me  finally  determine  to 
preach  on  man's  inexcusableness  for  neglect  of 
the  gospel.  And  now,  shall  I  take  for  my  text: 
"  And  they  all  with  one  consent  began  to  make 
excuse,"  and  proceed  to  state  and  show  the  futility 
of  the  usual  excuses  for  neglecting  the  gospel  t 
Nothing  could  be  easier,  or  more  superficial,  or 
probably  more  useless.  One  could  begin  any- 
where in  the  enumeration,  and  stop  at  any  point 
when  the  time  allotted  for  the  discourse  was 
exhausted.  But  setting  aside  such  a  plan  as 
puerile,  let  us  analyze  the  language  of  our  theme, 
and  see  what  materials  the  analysis  will  afford  us. 
Let  us  fix  clearly  in  our  minds  what  we  mean  by 
offers  of  the  gospel  and  by  neglecting  to  accept 
them.  We  may  need  this  part  of  our  materials, 
or  we  may  not,  and  cannot  decide  till  we  come  to 
the  work  of  construction.  We  next  inquire,  what 
makes  inexcusableness  for  the  neglect }  What 
makes  neglect  of  any  offer  excusable  .^  What 
would  excuse  our  neglect  of  some  great  govern- 
mental bounty  offered  for  some  slight  public 
service  }  Manifestly,  ignorance  of  what  is  offered, 
or  inability  to  comply  with  the  conditions  of  the 
offer,  or  insufficiency  of  motive  to  comply,  would 


144  SERMON  MAKING. 

either  unitedly  or  singly  be  an  ample  excuse. 
And  these  three  would  cover  the  whole  ground; 
but  if  neither  of  these  exists,  there  exists  no 
excuse.  They  cover  the  whole  range  of  excuses 
that  can  be  pleaded  in  man's  behalf  And  to 
show  that  neither  of  these  exists  in  a  Christian 
community  is  no  difficult  task.  But  with  the 
materials  thus  collected  the  text  we  have  named 
is  inappropriate.  A  better  one  is  found  in  the 
Epistle  to  the  Romans.  The  Apostle  Paul  there 
says  that  the  heathen  are  "without  excuse"  for 
not  rendering  unto  God  the  worship  and  service 
that  are  his  due.  All  that  they  needed  to  know 
of  God  to  make  them  inexcusable,  had  been  re- 
vealed in  the  works  of  creation  and  divine  provi- 
dence. Enumeration  of  the  steps  in  the  Apostle's 
argument  will  serve  admirably  as  an  introduction 
to  the  discourse  we  found  on  his  text.  They 
prepare  the  way  for  setting  in  the  strongest 
light  the  inexcusableness  of  any  one  under  Chris- 
tian enlightenment.  Here,  then,  our  analysis 
has  given  us  a  definite  and  limited  theme,  a 
comprehensive  and  complete  plan  of  discourse, 
a  pertinent  introduction;  and  withal  has  supplied 
us  with  more  than  materials  enough  for  the  sermon. 
Now  it  matters  not  what  the  theme  we  have  in 
hand  may  be;  to  analyze  it  will  be  the  most  direct 
method  of  collecting  the  thoughts  needed  for  a 
full  discussion  of  it  and  for  enforcing  the  duty 
taught  in  it.  It  is  the  only  method  of  securing 
a  complete  presentation  of  any  subject;  and  is 
equally  applicable  to  any.  No  practical  duty 
can  be  properly  appreciated,  or  intelligently 
enforced,  till  through  a  complete  analysis  of  all 


SERMON  MAKING.  145 

that  is  included  in  it,  its  central  principle  has  first 
been  reached.  Out  of  that  central  principle,  as  a 
plant  from  its  tap-root,  the  whole  sermon  will 
then  spring  into  form  and  harmony  of  parts. 
Then,  and  not  till  then,  the  preacher  is  prepared 
to  decide  what  the  order  of  his  thought  shall  be 
in  his  sermon;  is  prepared  to  sketch  the  plan 
which,  had  it  been  made  before,  would  have  been 
misnamed  the  analysis  of  his  sermon.  And  if 
made  only  when,  after  due  examination,  he  is 
ready  to  put  the  whole  into  final  shape,  the 
analysis,  as  formal  statement  of  plan,  has  its  uses. 
It  is  just  as  essential  that  the  sermon  should  have 
a  plan  as  it  is  that  the  sermon  should  be  made  or 
preached  at  all. 

And  what  we  have  said  of  topical  discourses  is 
equally  true  of  textual,  whether  the  text  consist 
of  a  single  sentence  or  of  many  sentences  in 
conjunction.  Few  discourses  are  less  interesting 
or  less  profitable  to  intelligent  people,  than  those 
which  consist  of  a  series  of  disconnected  para- 
graphs, hung  upon  single  words,  clauses,  or 
sentences  of  Scripture,  but  disclosing  no  single 
principle  that  gives  harmony  and  unity  to  the 
whole.  At  the  outset  of  one  of  them,  we  are 
entertained,  perhaps,  with  a  vivid  description  of 
a  bit  of  scenery,  or  of  some  august  occasion;  then 
we  have  a  scrap  of  archaeology:  then  a  slight 
touch  of  exegesis;  then  a  patch  of  doctrine;  then 
a  hit  at  physical  science;  then  a  word  of  exhorta- 
tion; then  a  page  from  ancient  history;  then  a 
snatch  of  poetry;  and,  in  conclusion,  a  comparison 
or  contrast  between  the  present  and  the  time  in 
which  the  text  was  written.     Does  any  one  say 


146  SERMON  MAKING. 

this  is  a  caricature,  or  an  exaggeration  ?  Taken 
literally,  it  may  be;  but  it  only  tells  what  a 
textual  sermon  sometimes  is,  what  many  a  one 
has  been,  when  the  text  has  not  first  been  analyzed, 
and  its  contents  so  laid  open,  that  the  whole  could 
be  arranged  into  an  order  and  unity  that  would 
leave  on  the  minds  of  the  hearers  a  single  and 
definite  impression. 

All  real  and  true  thinking  on  any  new  subject 
is,  in  a  sense,  by  analysis.  The  mind  begins  with 
what  is  most  apparent,  and  proceeds  by  degrees 
to  that  which  lies  within.  This  is  always  the 
true  method  of  investigating;  but  it  is  not  the 
true  method  of  presenting  the  results  of  investi- 
gation to  the  minds  of  others.  Inquiry  must  be 
by  analysis;  but  instruction  by  synthesis.  The 
latter  begins  where  the  former  leaves  off.  The 
preacher  who  has  thought  out  his  sermon  analy- 
tically, should  reverse  his  process  in  preparing 
it  for  the  pulpit,  and  put  together  his  materials 
synthetically.  If  he  thinks  only  while  he  writes, 
he  will  very  likely  end  with  the  thought  with 
which  he  should  have  begun.  Some  years  ago, 
when  discussions  were  heated  and  bitter  over  what 
was  called  the  higher  law,  a  gentleman  of  dis- 
tinction in  one  of  the  middle  states,  was  assailed 
for  sentiments  he  had  expressed  during  a  politi- 
cal canvass.  He  replied  to  one  of  his  assailants 
in  a  formal  lecture.  That  lecture  led  to  a  second, 
and  that  to  a  third.  And  so  on  till  several  had 
been  delivered.  Each  lecture  was  the  result  of 
his  progressive  analysis.  Of  the  whole  series  of 
lectures  when  completed  he  printed  a  syllabus, 
which  he  was  kind  enough  to  ask  me  to  look 


SERMON  MAKING.  147 

at  and  criticise.  The  lectures,  to  have  been  pro- 
perly appreciated  whether  as  heard  or  read,  should 
have  been  exactly  reversed  from  the  order  of 
their  original  delivery.  The  principles  on  which 
the  force  of  each  and  all  depended,  were  not  enun- 
ciated till  the  concluding  lecture.  I  have  heard 
sermons  that  would  have  been  improved  by  turn- 
ing them  end  for  end.  The  preachers  wrote  as 
they  analyzed.  They  should  have  constructed 
or  synthetized  only  when  their  analysis  had  been 
completed. 

Now,  in  what  has  been  said,  nothing  has  been 
farther  from  my  intention  than  to  imply  that  all 
sermons  should  be  made  in  the  same  way  or 
after  any  given  pattern.  Too  great  a  variety 
of  legitimate  subjects,  or  too  great  a  diversity  of 
modes  of  treating  them,  is  impossible.  Monot- 
ony and  sameness  are  as  insufferable  in  the  pulpit 
as  elsewhere.  In  fact,  one  strong  reason  for  in- 
sisting on  a  preliminary  critical  analysis  of  every 
subject  is,  that  it  will  insure  variety  of  treatment. 
Scripture  topics  and  texts  are  endlessly  diverse; 
and  each  to  be  properly  handled,  should  be  treated 
in  its  own  special  way.  What  the  treatment  of 
each  should  be,  no  one  can  determine  till  he  has 
first  resolved  it  into  its  original  elements.  The 
more  careful  and  complete  the  preceding  analy- 
sis, the  more  varied  and  natural  will  be  the  style 
of  discoursing.  The  most  monotonous  preachers, 
those  least  capable  of  variety  in  their  ministra- 
tions, are  those  who  do  least  at  critical  dissection 
of  their  subjects. 

And  here  let  it  be  distinctly  understood  that 
the  plan  of  a  sermon  is  never  for  its  own  sake. 


148  SERMON  MAKING. 

The  less  conspicuous  it  can  be  made,  the  better. 
The  skeleton  of  a  man  is  not  outside  of  the  flesh, 
but  covered  and  concealed.  It  yet  is  none  the 
less  necessary  because  hidden.  A  sermon  with- 
out a  framework  is  but  an  intellectual  mollusk; 
and  mollusks  can  never  do  the  work  of  verte- 
brates. The  use  and  value  of  a  plan  is  easily 
discerned.  Even  its  necessity  is  apparent  on  a 
moment's  reflection.  Without  it,  those  first  two 
qualities  of  fevery  effective  sermon,  transparency 
and  unity,  are  impossible.  All  thought  to  be 
lucid  must  be  orderly;  and  unity  always  requires 
articulation  of  parts.  But  it  is  not  of  the  least 
possible  consequence  that  the  heads  or  divisions 
of  a  discourse  should  be  remembered  or  even 
noticed.  He  who  has  climbed  a  tower  from  which 
to  view  a  city  or  a  landscape,  does  not  care  to  re- 
member the  steps  by  which  he  climbed.  The 
sermons  that  have  made  the  strongest  impres- 
sion on  us,  and  have  remained  longest  with  us, 
have  been  those  whose  plans  have  been  forgot- 
ten, whose  texts  even  have  perhaps  faded  from 
memory.  Like  fixed  stars  in  one's  mental  firma- 
ment, they  may  have  guided  through  many  a  sandy 
waste  of  life,  and  have  done  so  simply  because 
the  impressions  made  by  them  were  definite  and 
single.  And  yet  many  a  preacher  elaborates  his 
plan,  resorts  to  alliteration  and  a  hundred  little 
expedients  to  fix  it  in  the  hearer's  mind,  as 
if  the  plan  or  skeleton  were  the  main  end 
for  which  the  sermon  had  been  made.  Even 
so  admirable  a  preacher  as  Tholuck  has  left  in 
print  some  curious  specimens  of  this  kind  of  ser- 
mon-making.    It  would  be  an  awkward  lookine 


SERMON  MAKING.  149 

house  that  had  its  framework  of  beams  and  studs 
and  rafters,  all  standing  outside  the  structure.  The 
less  seen  of  the  real  bones  and  framework  of  a 
sermon  the  better. 

Let  us  glance  now  for  a  moment  at  that  part 
of  the  work  which  may  be  called  the  filling  up  of 
the  plan.  The  popular  taste  of  our  time  is,  hap- 
pily, wholly  averse  to  the  obtruded  formalities 
of  logic.  No  sensible  man  indulges  in  these. 
The  popular  taste,  also,  unfortunately,  is  averse 
to  compact  thought.  It  delights  in  large  infu- 
sions of  illustration  and  anecdote.  Light  food 
highly  seasoned  is  keenly  relished  by  the  major- 
ity of  modern  church-goers.  The  temptation  to 
cater  for  the  palates  of  the  majority,  is  to  some 
minds  irresistible.  The  taste  grows  by  gratifi- 
cation; and  every  day  the  popular  mind  for  the 
striking  and  the  sensational  is  growing  wider  and 
stronger.  Will  not  our  younger  preachers  make 
the  effort  to  give  to  the  rising  generation  a  more 
correct  taste  than  now  threatens  to  rule  }  But 
let  it  ever  be  remembered  that  nothing  else  than 
thought,  clear,  strong,  natural,  and  just  thought, 
can  do  it.  The  truth  is,  all  sound  minds  at  bot- 
tom are  rational.  Every  man's  self-respect  is 
appealed  to  when  his  reason  is  addressed ;  and  every 
man,  however  much  he  may  for  the  moment  be 
pleased  with  the  mere  tickling  of  his  fancy,  will 
resent  it  in  the  end  with  revulsion  of  feeling,  as 
if  he  had  been  imposed  upon.  Depend  on  it,  no 
subject  you  can  handle  is  so  difficult,  and  no 
thought  you  can  have  on  it  is  so  profound,  but 
that  if  the  thinking  be  clear  to  yourself,  you  can 
make  both  your  subject  and  }our  thoughts  on  it 


150  SERMON  MAKING. 

clear  to  others.  Lettered  and  unlettered  alike 
will  listen  to  clear  and  just  thought,  and  they  will 
be  sure  to  come  again  for  more.  Sheep  will  fol- 
low a  basket  of  corn,  but  not  a  basket  of  leaves. 

There  is  a  semblance  of  reasoning  sometimes 
indulged  in  by  preachers,  that  ought  to  be  used 
with  a  little  more  caution  than  it  commonly  is. 
I  refer  to  the  use  of  illustrative  analogies.  An 
argument  from  analogy  is  as  sound  as  any  other, 
where  there  is  an  undoubted  analogy  to  reason 
from.  But  it  is  an  old  device  of  sophistry  to  make 
an  apparent  analogy — an  apt  illustration  —  do 
the  work  of  a  real  argument.  And  sometimes 
even  well-intentioned  public  speakers,  preachers 
included,  are  themselves  misled  by  striking  re- 
semblances. It  may  be  the  habit  of  an  animal, 
or  it  may  be  a  process  of  nature,  that  is  appealed 
to.  Accidental  points  of  resemblance  are  seized 
on;  a  parallel  is  carefully  drawn;  the  result  is  an 
apparently  sound  argument  from  analogy;  but  it 
is  nothing  more  than  an  apt  illustration.  Imag- 
inative preachers  often  abound  in  these.  Working 
them  up  with  great  skill,  they  are  themselves 
often  as  much  misled  by  them  as  their  hearers. 
And  it  is  not  extremely  rare  that  the  resem- 
blance appealed  to  is  only  apparent.  Exact 
knowledge  would  show  that,  as  an  illustration 
even,  not  to  say  argument,  the  supposed  anal- 
ogue is  wholly  illusive. 

The  temptation  to  make  striking  points,  or 
palpable  hits,  in  the  pulpit  is  not  wisely  yielded 
to  with  frequency.  Reputation  for  making  them 
will  bring  a  certain  class  of  hearers;  to  retain  the 
hearers,  one  must  continue  to  make  them;   but 


SERMON  MAKING.  151 

they  are  not  the  fittest  vehicles  for  sober  truth; 
and  the  habit  of  making  them  will  occasionally 
betray  into  the  making  of  a  manifestly  false  one. 
I  remember  once  hearing  such  an  one.  The 
preacher  had  evidently  just  been  reading  Renan's 
Life  of  Jesus.  He  was  commenting  on  Renan's 
criticism  of  Mark's  account  of  the  two  thousand 
swine  that  the  evil  spirits  had  entered  into,  and  that 
had  rushed  down  a  steep  place  into  the  sea  and 
been  drowned.  Renan  had  said  that  the  man  from 
whom  the  evil  spirits  were  reputed  to  have  been 
expelled,  was  a  maniac  who  himself  drove  the 
swine  over  the  precipice.  "  One  man  drive  two 
thousand  swine!"  exclaimed  the  preacher;  "I 
would  like  to  see  twenty  men  drive  one  hog." 
This  of  course  brought  down  the  house;  but  it 
was  none  the  less  a  false  point.  Gratuitous  as  was 
the  suggestion  of  Renan,  the  preacher's  witticism 
did  not  expose  its  error,  but  laid  himself  open  to 
the  charge  of  attempting  to  refute  an  error  by  the 
use  of  a  manifest  sophism.  It  is  well  known  to  be 
incomparably  easier  to  drive  a  herd  of  swine  than 
it  is  to  drive  a  single  one.  The  truth  according 
to  Mark's  account  seems  to  have  been,  that,  when 
thrown  into  a  panic  by  the  unclean  spirits,  the 
swine  rushed  of  themselves  over  the  precipice 
into  the  sea. 

But  there  are  liabilities  to  err  in  filling  up  the 
plan  of  a  discourse,  so  entirely  peculiar  to  the 
preacher  as  to  entitle  them  to  special  notice. 
The  mistakes  thus  far  dwelt  on  are  common  to 
all  kinds  of  popular  address.  The  sermon,  from 
several  causes,  exposes  the  preacher  to  particular 
kinds  of  mistakes.     One  of  these  has  its  origin  in 


152  SERMON  MAKING. 

the  iron  usage  which  requires  that  the  sermon  shall 
be  of  a  prescribed  length.  No  matter  what  its 
subject,  or  what  the  amount  of  material  which  a 
proper  discussion  of  the  subject  may  require  to 
be  handled,  all  must  be  so  expanded  or  so  con- 
tracted (as  the  case  may  be)  as  to  fill  up  the 
given  number  of  minutes.  It  may  be  a  subject 
which  could  be  amply  discussed  in  fifteen  minutes; 
it  may  be  one  for  which  a  full  hour  would  no  more 
than  sufiSce;  usage  prescribes  the  same  time  for 
all.  It  is  almost  inevitable  that  without  extreme 
care,  one  or  the  other  of  two  mistakes  should 
be  committed.  Either  thoughts  that  are  so  fa- 
miliar and  commonplace  as  to  require  no  more 
than  the  briefest  statement,  will  be  dwelt  on  to 
the  weariness  of  hearers,  and  the  injury  of  the 
whole  effect  of  the  sermon;  or  else,  thoughts, 
whose  subtle  and  numerous  relations  and  profound 
comprehensiveness,  require  extended  exposition 
and  illustration,  will  be  crowded  into  statements 
so  general  and  meagre,  and  perhaps  vague,  as  to 
give  no  definite  impression,  and  thus  to  leave  the 
audience  in  uncertainty  and  doubt. 

Another  and  not  unfrequent  danger  lies  in  a 
want  of  time  for  due  preparation.  Sermons  are, 
often  of  necessity,  very  hurriedly  constructed. 
The  pastor's  time  may  have  been  consumed  in 
parochial  duties,  or  ill  health  may  have  made 
mental  exertion  impossible.  The  temptation  is 
strong  to  use  only  the  thoughts  that  are  most 
easily  handled;  or,  if  difficult  ones  must  be  dealt 
with,  to  dispose  of  them  in  the  quickest  manner 
possible.  There  is  only  a  limited  time  to  work 
in;   the  sermon  of  given  length   must   be  forth- 


SERMON  MAKING.  153 

coming  at  the  appointed  hour;  one  must  be  more 
or  less  than  human,  if  he  is  not  betrayed  into 
working  in  lines  along  which  he  can  move  with 
greatest  rapidity.  Self-repetition  and  an  irk- 
some sameness  of  thought  are  faults  into  which 
many  a  one  falls  without  suspecting  it. 

Most  preachers,  furthermore,  have  certain  sub- 
jects with  which  they  are  more  familiar  than  with 
any  others.  These  may  be  subjects  of  the  great- 
est importance.  The  preacher's  thoughts  may  be 
original.  They  may  not  have  received  the  public 
attention  to  which  they  are  entitled.  The  longer 
he  has  dwelt  on  them,  the  stronger  have  become 
his  convictions  of  their  importance,  and  the  greater 
the  facility  with  which  he  can  treat  of  them. 
Such  a  preacher,  ministering  for  years  to  the  same 
congregation,  may  unconsciously  bore  them  to 
the  exhaustion  of  their  patience.  His  ideas  cease 
to  be  novel,  and  his  repetitions  become  unendur- 
able. Like  a  horse  that  moves  at  a  lazy  gait 
along  an  unfamiliar  and  a  difficult  road,  the  mo- 
ment the  wheels  drop  into  well-worn  ruts  and  his 
feet  have  struck  the  recognized  way,  he  pricks  up 
his  ears  and  dashes  away  with  redoubled  speed; 
but  unlike  the  horse,  the  preacher  is  in  danger  of 
thinking  that  the  familiar  thoughts  which  quicken 
his  own  mental  movement,  must  also  quicken  the 
emotions  of  his  hearers. 

When  all  has  been  determined  in  respect  to 
both  the  order  and  the  kind  of  the  thought  of  the 
sermon,  then  comes  the  clothing  of  the  thought  in 
language.  To  this  part  of  the  process  of  making 
a  sermon,  different  preachers  give  very  different 
degrees  of  attention.     One  makes  all  else  subordi- 


154  SERMON  MAKING. 

nate  to  it;  another,  subordinates  it  to  everything 
else.  There  are  sermons  that  are  nothing  if 
stripped  of  their  rhetorical  finery: 

They  are  like  poppies  spread ; 
You  seize  the  flower,  its  bloom  is  shed. 

No  vital  energy  is  in  them;  none  can  be  conveyed 
through  them  to  others.  There  are  other  sermons 
that  stand  in  their  unadorned  strength,  like  leaf- 
less oaks  against  a  winter  sky.  Every  line  of 
thought  in  them  is  unmistakably  clear  in  its  una- 
dorned simplicity.  They  are  imposing  in  their 
proportions;  but  they  lack  the  attractiveness  of 
leafage  and  color. 

Just  what  attention  should  be  given  to  the 
rhetorical  dress  of  the  sermon  is  a  question  to 
which  no  definite  answer  can  be  easily  given. 
Two  things,  however,  are  certain:  over-dress  of 
thoughts,  like  that  of  persons,  is  always  a  sign 
of  weakness:  under-dressed  thoughts,  like  under- 
dressed  persons  always  create  adverse  prejudice 
and  repel;  the  first  is  fatal  to  vigorous  thinking,  the 
second  entails  neglect  of  what  is  thought.  Too 
much  attention  to  the  rhetoric  destroys  or  cramps 
the  life  of  the  thought.  Many  a  sermon  from  over 
elaboration  of  its  rhetoric  is  open  to  the  charge 
brought  by  John  Foster  against  the  sermons  of 
the  distinguished  Scotch  divine  Dr.  Blair:  "They 
were  chilled  through  in  standing  so  long  to  be 
dressed."  The  style,  furthermore,  which  diverts 
attention  from  the  thought  to  itself,  whether 
from  excess  of  ornamentation  or  from  deficiency 
of  suitable  attire  is  always  a  vicious  style.  And 
it  is  a  vice  that  in  a  sermon  is  inexcusable.    When 


SERMON  MAKING.  155 

attention  has  been  arrested  by  the  style  rather 
than  by  the  thought,  and  hearers  remember  im- 
ages and  tropes  and  fine  turns  of  expression  in- 
stead of  the  truth  discussed,  the  sermon  is  a  com- 
parative failure.  The  best  style  is  like  plate-glass, 
so  transparent  that  in  looking  at  the  objects  be- 
yond it,  you  forget  the  medium  through  which 
you  see  them.  Alas !  that  so  much  pulpit  rhe- 
toric distorts  and  discolors  and  half  conceals,  if 
it  does  not  hide,  the  very  truth  it  professes  to  be 
making  clear. 

Manifestly  the  surest  guaranty  we  can  have 
that  our  style  will  be  the  best  we  can  command 
for  our  subject  is,  that  we  are  complete  mas- 
ters of  what  we  wish  to  say,  and  that  what  we 
wish  to  say  has,  in  some  sense,  become  master 
of  us.  When  the  thought,  by  due  meditation, 
has  become  fused  to  white  heat,  it  will  pour  forth 
in  an  easy  flowing  current  like  molten  metal  from 
a  crucible.  Language  and  imagery  will  flow  un- 
bidden with  the  thought.  Clear  and  vigorous 
thinking  always  brings  clear  and  vigorous  ex- 
pression. Genuine  earnestness  of  purpose  always 
breeds  an  unction  that  blends  thought  and  its 
expression  into  an  indivisible  unity. 

Like  every  one  else  who  reduces  thought  to 
writing,  the  preacher  is  in  danger  of  forming  a 
style  from  which  he  never  deviates.  Accustomed 
to  certain  modes  of  expression,  and  to  certain 
rhythmical  constructions  of  clauses,  his  mind  hab- 
itually and  insensibly  recurs  to  these,  whatever 
he  may  have  in  hand.  But  no  style  is  so  excel- 
lent as  not  to  have  its  drawbacks,  if  one  never 
can  vary  it.     Gibbon  tells  us  that  he  made  "many 


156  SERMON  MAKING. 

experiments  before  he  could  hit "  the  style  finally 
adopted  by  him  in  his  great  history;  but  he  does 
not  tell  us  that,  having  adopted  it,  he  never  de- 
viates from  it,  whether  describing  the  triumphal 
procession  of  an  emperor,  or  the  foibles  of  an 
empress.  What  a  relief  it  would  be  to  the  reader 
of  his  monotonous  pages,  if,  here  and  there,  he 
could  come  unexpectedly  on  a  paragraph  written 
in  one  or  more  of  the  historian's  rejected  styles. 
The  preacher  who  ministers  statedly  to  the  same 
congregation  needs,  above  all  men,  the  power, 
if  he  can  possibly  acquire  it,  of  varying  his  style 
with  the  varying  subjects  of  his  discourses.  No 
matter  how  admirable  the  style  he  may  have 
acquired,  it  cannot  be  the  fittest  for  all  subjects. 
Always  to  use  it,  would  be  no  wiser  than,  having 
once  timed  his  steps  to  some  favorite  march,  al- 
ways to  move  in  accordance  with  its  measure, 
whether  crossing  a  drawing-room,  climbing  a 
stairway,  or  marching  in  a  grand  procession. 

The  critical  analysis  of  English  styles  is  a  de- 
partment of  study  to  which  American  clergy- 
men as  a  body  have  given  by  no  means  the 
degree  of  attention  it  deserves  and  demands. 
Mastery  of  their  native  tongue  is  far  from  being 
so  common  among  them  as  it  might  and  ought 
to  be.  It  can  be  acquired  only  by  painstaking 
and  drill  and  self-discipline  that  are  early  begun 
and  long  persisted  in.  It  is  not  a  little  to  the 
discredit  of  our  American  methods  of  education, 
that  with  all  our  provisions  for  instruction  in  the 
various  departments  of  knowledge,  so  few  of  our 
educated  men  prove  themselves  adepts  in  the  use 
of  their  mother  tongue.     And  among  no  class  of 


SERMON  MAKING.  157 

men  is  this  lack  of  proficiency  more  to  be  regretted 
than  among  those  whose  business  it  is  to  win  to 
a  knowledge  of  the  truth  and  a  practice  of  the 
right.  There  is  but  one  remedy;  and  that  is  for 
every  young  preacher  to  strive  with  untiring  dili- 
gence, and  thorough  study  of  the  best  examples, 
to  avail  himself  of  the  resources  and  the  subtle 
strength  of  the  language  he  is  so  constantly  using. 

A  critical  study  and  comparison  of  the  sermons 
of  noted  and  successful  preachers  will  help  to 
one's  improvement  in  all  that  pertains  to  the 
making  of  sermons.  Our  language  abounds  in 
admirable  specimens  for  this  kind  of  study.  The 
present  generation  is  rich  in  them.  But  to  speak 
of  the  sermons  of  living  men,  or  even  of  those  of 
the  recently  departed,  might  be  invidious.  Let 
us  drop  back  then  to  the  first  quarter  of  the 
current  century,  when  some  of  the  most  noted 
preachers  in  our  language  were  in  the  fullness 
of  their  powers. 

Foremost  among  these  was  Robert  Hall.  Few 
preachers  ever  received  more  universal  or  more 
unqualified  praise;  none,  perhaps,  was  ever  more 
eloquent.  Nothing  could  be  simpler  or  more  com- 
plete than  the  plans  of  his  discourses";  the  compass 
^f  his  thought  was  unsurpassed.  Every  sermon 
had  a  distinct  and  clearly-defined  purpose;  the 
purpose  was  made  apparent  to  the  audience  from 
the  outset;  and  of  that  purpose  neither  he  nor 
any  intelligent  hearer,  whatever  the  subtleties 
of  his  logic  or  the  flights  of  his  imagination,  was 
permitted  for  an  instant  to  lose  sight.  And,  what- 
ever may  be  said  of  the  style  of  his  published  dis- 
courses, as' being  too  elevated  and  elaborate  for 


158  SERMON  MAKING. 

popular  effect,  his  spoken  style,  we  have  been 
assured  by  those  who  have  often  heard  him,  was 
not  above  the  needs  of  an  ordinary  assemblage. 
And  all  these  were  admirable  qualities.  But  he 
was  not  faultless.  His  theme  was  not  unfrequently 
discussed  as  if  for  its  own  sake.  He  was  so  ab- 
sorbed in  contemplation  of  its  vastness  and  gran- 
deur, as  to  be  apparently  unmindful  of  his  audience, 
and  of  the  practical  ends  it  was  intended  to  ac- 
complish. Often,  also,  the  larger  part  of  his  dis- 
course was  so  elevated  in  the  range  of  its  ideas, 
though  not  in  its  language,  as  to  be  above  the 
reach  of  the  humbler  of  his  auditors,  though  even 
these,  we  are  told,  waited  patiently  under  the  un- 
intelligible portions,  confident  of  ample  reward  for 
their  waiting,  in  the  peroration.  In  his  earlier 
days,  if  the  preceding  evening  had  been  spent 
with  Sir  James  Mackintosh,  in  philosophical  dis- 
cussion, the  sermon  smacked  of  the  discussion.  If, 
on  the  preceding  afternoon,  he  had  been  among 
impressive  scenery,  the  teeming  imagery  of  the 
discourse  revealed  it.  If  some  book  had  moved 
his  ire,  there  was  sure  to  be  a  tinge  of  polemic 
in  his  tone.  A  great,  impressible,  and  impressive 
preacher;  but,  by  no  means,  a  model  to  be  imitated. 
Sixteen  years  younger  than  Hall  was  Thomas 
Chalmers,  the  foremost  of  Scottish  preachers. 
In  several  respects,  the  two  were  so  dissimilar 
as  to  furnish  almost  a  contrast.  Hall,  in  his 
sermons,  opened  vast  breadths  of  territory  over 
which  he  took  his  hearers  with  breathless  speed. 
Chalmers  presented  a  single  mountain  of  thought, 
and,  planting  his  hearers  on  its  summit,  pointed 
out  to  them  the  various  prospects  that'  lay  before 


SERMON  MAKING.  159 

them.  Hall's  sermons  were  never  written  before 
delivery;  Chalmers'  were  always  read.  Hall  was 
always  fastidiously  select  in  his  language,  no 
matter  how  impetuous  his  delivery;  Chalmers 
marshalled  his  words  in  tumultuous  troops,  often 
calling  to  his  aid,  such  as  could  have  found  no 
place  in  Johnson's  Dictionary.  Hall,  when  he 
had  once  entered  on  his  course  of  thought, 
never  could  tarry  for  a  moment  to  point  out 
to  his  hearers  some  goodly  prospect  brought 
to  view  in  his  progress;  Chalmers  devoted  his 
whole  attention  to  the  goodly  prospects,  without 
stopping  to  tell  his  hearers  of  the  route  by  which 
he  had  brought  them  where  the  prospect  was  to 
be  seen.  Hall  was  the  more  intellectual;  Chal- 
mers the  more  emotional;  the  former  lifted  up 
and  thrilled;  the  latter  awed  and  impressed. 

Contemporaneous  with  both  Hall  and  Chal- 
mers, and  the  superior  of  both  these  in  original- 
ity and  profundity  of  thought,  and  yet  greatly 
their  inferior  as  a  preacher,  was  John  Foster — 
whose  style  Robert  Hall  characterized  as  "a  lum- 
bering baggage  wagon  loaded  with  gold."  Hall 
and  Chalmers  always  had  clearly  marked  lines 
of  thought  to  which  they  rigidly  adhered,  and 
every  one  of  which  converged  to  a  commom  cen- 
ter. Never  a  sentence  escaped  either  of  them 
that  did  not  bear  directly  on  the  simple  end  in 
view.  Foster,  on  the  other  hand,  often  awoke  on 
Sunday  morning  uncertain  on  what  he  should 
preach.  The  most  trivial  incident  on  his  way  to 
church  might  change  the  current  of  his  thinking, 
and  compel  a  change  in  the  method  if  not  in  the 
purpose   of  his   discourse.     He   preached   as   he 


160  SERMON  MAKING. 

wrote  in  his  essays,  the  sinuosities  of  his  thought 
depending  on  causes  too  hidden  in  their  action 
to  be  detected  by  the  casual  reader.  The  man 
whose  sermons  were  so  constructed,  no  matter 
how  profound  or  how  massive  his  thought,  or 
how  expressive  or  fitting  his  language,  never 
could  be  a  successful  preacher. 

When  Hall  and  Chalmers  and  Foster  were  in 
their  prime,  the  vicar  of  Trinity  Church  and  sen- 
ior fellow  of  King's  College,  Cambridge,  Charles 
Simeon,  had  passed  his  meridian,  and  was  rejoic- 
ing in  what  were  regarded  as  the  good  results  of 
many  and  laborious  years  devoted  to  the  culti- 
vation of  a  better  style  of  preaching  in  the  An- 
glican Church.  Born  to  a  position  in  life  and  to 
opportunities  entirely  superior  to  those  of  the 
men  with  whom  he  is  here  named,  he  was  in  no 
respect  the  equal  of  either  of  them.  He  was  a 
prolific,  but  not  an  original  or  vigorous  author. 
To  him,  more  than  to  any  other  man,  the  evan- 
gelical party  of  the  Anglican  Church  was  in- 
debted for  its  organization;  and  to  him  more 
than  to  any  other  is  it  indebted  for  what  it 
now  is.  And  so  long  as  the  memories  of  Henry 
Martyn  and  Henry  Kirke  White  shall  remain 
fresh  in  Christian  hearts,  so  long  will  the  name  of 
Simeon  be  remembered  as  that  of  their  patron, 
tutor,  friend,  and  counselor.  But  Simeon's  ideas 
of  the  function  of  preaching  were  not  of  the 
highest.  Useful  as  he  was  to  many  of  the 
younger  clergy  of  his  time,  no  great  preacher 
has  sprung  from  his  influence.  The  very  means 
adopted  by  him  to  elevate  the  standard  of  the 
Anglican  pulpit,  helped  to  lower  it.     The  book 


SERMON  MAKING.  161 

of  "  Skeleton  Sermons  "  prepared  by  him  to  assist 
beginners,  proved  the  snare  that  entangled  and 
pulled  them  down. 

But  let  every  man  be  distinctively  himself.  If 
any  real  results  are  to  be  accomplished,  your 
style  and  your  thinking  and  your  method  must 
be  your  own  and  not  another's.  No  man  is 
efficient  unless  free;  and  no  man  is  free  who 
is  an  imitator  of  others.  Individuality  and  spon- 
taneity are  indivisibly  one.  The  larger  your  en- 
dowments, the  greater  the  reason  for  giving  them 
full  and  free  play;  and  no  one  is  so  small  or 
weak,  but  that,  if  he  be  strictly  himself  and  no 
copyist,  he  may  not  make  himself  eminently  re- 
spectable in  his  appropriate  sphere.  Whatever, 
therefore,  may  be  your  future  fields  of  labor,  and 
whatever  the  subjects  on  which  you  may  attempt 
to  preach  to  others,  pray  strive  to  be  true  to 
yourselves  as  well  as  to  him  whom  you  call  Lord 
and  Master.  Serve  God  with  all  your  heart  and 
strength;  be  content  to  serve  him  with  the  tal- 
ents he  has  given  you,  and  in  the  sphere  he  shall 
assign  you;  so  shall  you  keep  your  manhood  and 
your  self-respect,  so  shall  you  serve  God  most 
acceptably  and  your  generation  most  usefully, 
and  so  shall  the  blessing  of  the  faithful  eternally 
rest  on  you 


LECTURE  VII. 

KINDS    OF    SERMONS. 

Various  attempts  have  been  .made  by  writers 
on  Homiletics  to  distribute  sermons  into  clearly- 
definable  classes.  No  classification  has  yet  been 
made  that  is  not  open  to  objection.  Others  will 
doubtless  be  made;  but  there  is  no  good  reason 
to  believe  that  they  will  be  any  more  satisfactory. 
The  difficulty  has  been,  and  still  is,  to  find  some 
one  principle  according  to  which  the  distribution 
can  be  so  made  that  the  sermons  of  one  class 
shall  not  intersect  or  overlap  those  of  another. 
And  the  difficulty  exists  with  the  most  general 
classification;  it  becomes  specially  apparent  when 
the  attempt  is  made  to  classify  according  to 
species. 

Thus,  it  has  been  common  to  divide  sermons 
into  two  general  classes,  known  as  topical  and 
textual.  This  division  was  recognized  in  our  last 
lecture  as  sufficiently  accurate  for  the  purpose 
for  which  it  was  then  cited.  Many  sermons  are 
so  clearly  marked  that  they  may,  with  strict  pro- 
priety, be  distinguished  as  belonging  to  one  or 
the  other  of  these  classes.     But  there  are  very 


KINDS    OF   SERMONS.  163 

many  others  that  are  manifestly  both  topical  and 
textual.  The  very  language  of  the  text  may 
enunciate  a  distinct  theme;  and  ample  discussion 
of  the  theme  may  be  obtained  from  a  simple  ex- 
position of  the  language  in  which  it  is  stated. 

A  more  minute  distribution  was  made  many 
years  ago,  by  Principal  Campbell,  author  of  the 
"  Philosophy  of  Rhetoric,"  in  his  lectures  on  "Pul- 
pit Eloquence."  He  classified  sermons  according 
as  they  were  addressed  to  the  understanding,  the 
imagination,  the  passions,  and  the  will.  But  few, 
if  any,  sermons,  properly  constructed,  can  fail  in 
one  part  or  another  to  address  all  these  in  turn. 
The  final  aim  of  every  real  sermon,  evidently  is, 
or  ought  to  be,  to  win  the  will  of  the  hearer  to  the 
views  of  the  speaker. 

Another  and  later  classification  groups  as  doc- 
trinal, practical,  experiential  (not  experimental, 
— we  experiment  in  physics,  we  experience  in  re- 
ligion and  morals),  historical,  occasional,  etc. 
This  is  but  little,  if  any,  less  open  to  stricture 
than  the  others.  No  doctrine  can  be  properly 
treated  in  popular  discourse,  which  is  not  at  some 
point  exhibited  in  its  practical  bearings,  and 
which  does  not  at  all  points  grotind  itself  in  the 
Christian  experience;  and  none  can  be  fully  un- 
derstood, except  as  seen  in  the  light  of  its  history. 
Doctrine  and  duty,  in  other  words  belief  and 
practice,  are  only  two  sides  of  one  and  the  same 
thing.  Analyze  a  doctrine,  and  you  will  find  it 
to  be  only  the  theoretic  statement  of  a  duty;  ana- 
lyze a  duty,  and  you  will  find  it  to  be  the  precept- 
ive form  of  a  doctrine.  Truth  underlies  each,  and 
you  may  state  the  same  truth  theoretically  as  a 


164  KINDS    OF   SERMONS. 

doctrine,  or  preceptively  as  a  command.  Resolve 
either  one  into  its  , simple  elements  and  we  are 
brought  necessarily  to  some  kind  of  conception  of 
the  other.  A  duty  without  a  doctrine  is  as  impos- 
sible as  a  tree  without  its  roots;  and  a  doctrine 
which  does  not  lead  to  duty,  is  as  impossible  as  a 
living  root  without  its  growth  above  ground. 
Why  should  I  discuss  a  doctrinal  truth  except  to 
fasten  it  in  the  mind  as  something  to  be  put  in 
practice;  and  how  can  I  enforce  a  duty  except  as 
I  ground  it  in  some  great  doctrinal  truth.-' 

Theological  essays  may  discuss  doctrines  as 
abstractions;  sermons  should  discuss  them  as 
vital  truths,  as  truths  that  quicken  the  soul  into 
energy  and  impel  it  to  action.  But  one  of  the 
perplexities  of  the  young  preacher  is  to  know  how 
to  handle  the  great  doctrines  of  Christianity  in 
the  pulpit  in  such  way  that  his  discourse  shall  be 
a  sermon  and  not  a  mere  dissertation.  In  his 
study  of  systematic  theology,  he  has  become 
familiar  with  doctrines  as  a  series  of  dogmas 
founded  on  Scripture  texts,  and  reasoned  out  and 
systemized.  He  assents  to  them  as  formal  truths; 
he  can  justify  his  assent  by  exegesis  and  by  ex- 
act logical  processes;  but  how  to  make  these 
doctrines  so  instinct  with  life  that  they  shall 
become  living  principles  of  action  both  to  him- 
self and  his  hearers,  he  is  at  a  loss  to  understand. 
Happily,  the  old  New  England  style  of  treating 
doctrines  in  the  pulpit  very  much  as  a  demon- 
strator of  anatomy  treats  parts  of  a  human  body 
in  the  dissecting-room,  is  no  longer  tolerable. 
Even  so  admirable  and  so  comparatively  recent 
an  example  of  this  kind  of  preaching  as  that  of 


KINDS    OF   SERMONS.  165 

Nathaniel  Emmons,  the  finest,  unquestionably, 
that  New  England  ever  produced,  with  his  care- 
fully supplemented  "Improvement"  of  the  doc- 
trine, cannot  now  be  followed.  He  has  left  no 
successors.  His  method  has  passed  away  to  re- 
turn no  more. 

Discourses  devoted  to  experience  are  still  less 
common  than  those  that  are  distinctively  doc- 
trinal. They  were,  no  longer  ago  than  the  last 
generation,  extremely  common.  Men  of  little 
learning  and  of  narrow  resources  but  of  many  in- 
ward conflicts,  were  often  eminently  successful  in 
them.  They  were  men  whose  knowledge  of  the 
Scriptures  had  been  derived  from  only  an  unaided 
study  of  the  English  version,  but  whose  inner  life 
had  been  made  deep  and  strong  and  mellow  by 
vicissitude  and  trial.  Preaching  in  our  time — a 
time  of  great  bustle  and  outward  activity — is 
every  year  coming  more  and  more  from  books 
and  from  outward  observation,  and  less  and  less 
from  the  inward  experience  of  the  preacher.  We 
know  more  of  the  grammar  and  of  the  philology 
and  of  the  contents  of  the  Scriptures  than  our 
fathers  did;  but  whether  we  know  as  much  of  that 
inner  life  which  a  devout  study  of  them  is  sure  to 
awaken  within,  and  for  which  a  more  quiet  and 
meditative  age  than  ours  would  be  favorable,  is  a 
question  which  may  be  left  to  the  thoughtful  to 
answer.  The  purely  experiential  sermon,  like 
the  strictly  doctrinal,  is  no  longer  in  fashion;  the 
practical  also  has 'largely  given  place  to  the  hor- 
tatory. Other  and  mixed  types  have  taken  their 
places. 

But  if  the  doctrinal  cannot  be  justly  divorced 


y" 


166  KINDS    OF   SERMONS. 

from  the  practical,  nor  yet  the  experiential  from 
either  of  them,  is  it  possible  to  unite  the  three 
in  due  proportions  in  the  same  discourse  ?  Can  a 
requisite  degree  of  each  be  combined  in  one  ani 
the  same  discourse  ?  Can  the  sermon  that  builds 
on  experience,  both  instruct  the  understanding 
and  impel  the  will  to  action  ?  Let  the  example 
and  experience  of  the  apostles  instruct  us.  We 
have  brief  sketches  of  their  sermons  in  the  Acts; 
we  know  how  they  combined  the  three  in  their 
epistles.  At  the  outset,  they  manifestly  had  only 
the  words  of  Jesus,  and  the  facts  of  his  life.  Out 
of  these,  by  aid  and  guidance  of  the  Holy  Spirit, 
they  evolved,  each  in  his  own  consciousness, 
the  great  doctrines  which  they  preached  in  their 
sermons  and  unfolded  in  their  epistles.  Every  doc- 
trine came  like  a  living  truth  from  the  depth  of 
their  own  hearts.  Every  word  was  big  with  re- 
ligious emotion — they  spoke  out  of  the  fullness 
of  their  own  experience;  and  every  word  was 
supplemented  by  its  correspondent  action.  They 
were  always  instructive,  inwardly  illuminative, 
and  intensely  practical.  He  who  would  preach 
as  the  apostles  did,  must  have  something  of  the 
same  experience  that  they  had.  Guided  by  the 
same  Spirit  that  animated  them,  we  must  live 
over  again  the  great  truths  of  Christianity  as  they 
lived  them.  No  doctrine  can  be  fully  understood 
by  us,  much  less  effectively  preached,  until  we 
have  worked  ourselves  out  into  a  clear  appre- 
hension of  its  meaning  and  power  through  Chris- 
tian experience.  We  must  know,  both  by  inward 
experience  and  outward  test,  what  we  preach,  or 
we  shall  fail  in  our  calling. 


KINDS    OF   SERMONS.  167 

Again,  attempts  are  sometimes  made  to  classify 
according  to  some  one  predominant  element  in 
the  treatment.  Thus  we  have  the  argumentative, 
the  explanatory,  the  polemic,  the  didactic,  the 
descriptive,  the  narrative,  the  biographical,  the 
hortatory,  the  pathetic,  the  imaginative,  the  sen- 
timental, and  sometimes,  to  the  disgrace  of  the 
pulpit,  we  might  add,  the  fantastic  and  the 
grotesque.  And,  doubtless,  there  are  sermons 
to  which  one  or  another  of  these  epithets  may 
not  unjustly  be  applied.  But  not  one  of  the 
sermons  so  designated  can  be  symmetrical  in 
form,  or  do  its  work  completely,  if  it  does  not 
embody  elements  which  no  one  epithet  can  cover. 
An  element  so  predominant  as  to  hide  or  override 
every  other,  is  like  a  virtue  so  excessive  as  to 
border  on  a  vice.  Unfortunately,  however,  he  is 
almost  a  prodigy  who  is  not  so  habituated  to 
some  one  kind  of  preaching  as  to  expose  himself 
to  the  unqualified  application  of  one  or  another  of 
the  epithets  we  have  named.  No  matter  what 
the  subjects  discussed,  most  men,  unintentionally 
and  unconsciously,  fall  into  uniform  methods  and 
styles.  They  do  so,  not  so  much  because  of  any 
peculiarity  of  original  endowment  as  from  some 
accidentally  formed  habit.  Happening  at  some 
earlier  period  of  their  education  to  write  success- 
fully on  a  given  subject  and  in  a  given  way,  and 
to  be  commended  for  their  work,  they  tried  the 
same  kind  a  second  and  a  third  time,  and  speedily 
both  taste  and  habit  were  confirmed.  Growing 
into  the  maturity  of  their  powers,  they  became 
incapable  of  success  through  any  other  than  their 
habitual  methods.     Just  as  among  school  boys. 


168  KINDS    OF   SERMONS. 

one  of  them  falling  into  the  hands  of  an  incompe- 
tent teacher  of  mathematics,  contracts  for  that 
science  a  dislike  which  he  never  can  overcome, 
while  his  taste  for  an  ancient  language,  skillfully 
imparted  by  a  wise  teacher,  becomes  strong  and 
as  enduring  as  life;  and  another  boy  badly  in- 
structed in  languages,  but  well  taught  in  math- 
ematics, may  be  animated  through  life  by  tastes 
the  reverse  of  the  first.  The  first  finds  more 
pleasure  in  literature  than  in  science  and  philoso- 
phy: the  other  more  in  science  and  philosophy 
than  in  literature.  Mental  tastes  and  habits  are 
perhaps  quite  as  often  the  result  of  accident  as  of 
original  endowment. 

The  mistake  or  bent  of  the  student  in  his  earlier 
studies  may  be  perpetuated  in  the  Theological 
Seminary.  The  young  candidate  for  the  pulpit 
finds  himself  inclined  to  write  only  a  given  kind 
of  sermons.  His  reading  and  habits  of  mind  have 
fitted  him  for  one  kind,  and  apparently  for  no 
other.  He  is  tempted  to  cultivate  only  what  he 
regards  as  his  special  gift.  Cultivating  that 
exclusively,  it  soon  becomes  excessive.  A  char- 
acteristic that  would  be  admirable  if  existing 
in  due  proportion  with  others,  by  its  very  excess 
gives  deformity  to  the  whole.  He  is  a  wise  man 
who,  looking  forward  to  the  Christian  ministry, 
cultivates  with  assiduity  his  taste  and  his  capacity 
for  just  those  kinds  of  discourse  to  which  he  finds 
himself  least  inclined  and  for  which  he  may,  for 
the  present,  think  himself  least  qualified.  It  is 
not  one  kind,  however  good  it  may  be,  that  the 
people  always  wish  to  hear.  And  no  one  method, 
whatever  its  merits,  can  be  fitting  to  more  than  a 


KINDS    OF   SERMONS.  169 

limited  number  of  the  indefinitely  numerous  sub- 
jects that  ought  to  receive  attention. 

But  easy  and  natural,  and  possibly  excusable, 
as  may  be  the  formation  of  these  self-limiting 
habits  of  thought,  to  which  all  are  prone,  there  is 
no  excuse  for  indulgence  in  the  fantastic  and  the 
grotesque  in  the  pulpit.  This  is  an  offense  which 
no  plea  can  justify  or  extenuate.  It  is  not  charge- 
able to  deficiency  or  disorder  of  intellect.  No 
church  ordains  halfwits  or  lunatics  to  its  ministry. 
Pure  perversity — an  inexcusable  vitiosity  of  taste 
— alone  can  explain  it.  The  plea  that  it  brings 
to  church  the  coarse  and  vulgar,  who  would  not 
otherwise  come,  is  idle  and  refutes  itself  As 
well  plead  that  counterfeit  money  promotes 
commerce.  At  bottom,  it  is  the  weak  vanity 
of  the  preacher  that  prompts  it,  and  is  most 
gratified  by  indulgence  in  it.  If  he  who  indulges 
in  it,  only  knew  that  he  not  only  offends  good 
taste,  but  fills  with  disgust  the  right-minded,  it 
might  cure  him  of  his  folly;  but  alas,  vanity  is 
both  blind  and  deaf. 

And  yet,  in  spite  of  all  that  can  be  said  or  done 
to  the  contrary,  certain  natures  are  so  compounded, 
certain  temperaments  are  so  exaggerated  by  habit, 
that  whatever  comes  from  them  must  be  the  ex- 
treme of  its  kind.  Thus  one  man  is  sure  to  discuss 
all  subjects  with  the  same  unvarying  degree  of 
energy.  No  matter  what  his  subject,  there  is 
always  the  same  array  of  formalities  and  the  same 
vehemence  of  spirit  and  manner.  His  theme  may 
be  the  gentleness  of  Christ,  or  the  grace  of  humility; 
he  starts  out  in  the  discussion  of  it  with  the  drum 
and  fife  and  bugle  of  high  sounding  rhetoric,  and 


170  KINDS    OF   SERMONS. 

moves  off  with  the  dash  of  one  who  is  charging 
on  the  camp  of  an  enemy.  He  is  nothing  if  he  is 
not  impetuous  and  ardent. 

Another  is  always  soft  in  tone  and  meek  in 
spirit  and  gentle  in  word,  even  when  denouncing 
the  vilest  of  iniquities.  No  one  is  ever  startled 
by  any  word  that  falls  from  his  lips.  All  are 
soothed  by  the  rhythm  of  his  sentences.  His 
theme  may  be  the  sublimest  that  can  occupy  the 
mind  and  heart  of  man;  he  speaks  with  all  the 
serenity  of  a  summer  evening.  It  may  be  the  aw- 
ful doom  of  the  wicked  of  which  he  speaks,  but 
he  will  not  disturb  the  tranquillity  of  his  hearers. 
His  audiences  are  always  lulled  into  perfect  repose. 
You  hear  him,  and  are  reminded  of  the  poet's — 

— noise  like  a  hidden  brook 
In  the  leafy  month  of  June, 
That  to  the  sleeping  woods,  all  night, 
Singeth  a  quiet  tune. 

But  there  is  a  kind  of  so-called  sermon,  the 
expository,  that  may  be  entitled  to  more  atten- 
tion than  it  has  thus  far  received  in  the  present 
course  of  lectures.  Very  much  has  been  said  and 
written  of  late  in  behalf  of  it.  I  have  both  heard 
and  read  very  warm  praises  of  it.  It  was  the 
uniform  method  of  the  church  Fathers.  Our  own 
generation  has  furnished  some  admirable  examples 
of  it.  But  to  succeed  in  it  is  not  easy,  though 
success  is  not  so  much  dependent  on  a  high  order 
of  intellect  as  on  certain  degrees  of  diligence  and, 
tact.  That  it  is  the  kind  of  preaching  most  needed 
by  this  generation,  is  by  no  means  evident.  That 
it  may,  like  any  other  kind,  be  made  the  vehicle 


KINDS    OF   SERMONS.  171 

of  truth  which  this  generation  needs  specially  to 
hear,  no  one  can  doubt.  But  whether  the  same 
truths  may  not  be  more  effectively  taught  by  the 
logical  and  rhetorical  methods  of  modern  thought 
than  through  any  strict  exposition  of  Scripture,  is 
a  fairly  open  question.  I  say  strict  exposition, 
because  it  is  not  difficult  for  a  man  of  lively  fancy 
to  find  in  the  Scriptures  many  things  which  are 
not  there;  and  it  is  not  uncommon,  through  a 
loose  interpretation,  to  bring  out  of  them  many 
things  that  are  certainly  not  in  them. 

Legitimate  exposition  is  the  telling  us  pre- 
cisely what  the  writers  of  Scripture  meant  to 
say.  To  tell  that,  one  must  know  the  age  in 
which  they  lived,  and,  so  far  as  possible,  the  exact 
circumstances  under  which  they  wrote.  But  to 
import  into  Scripture  the  ideas  of  the  nineteenth 
century  and  attribute  these  to  the  writers  of  the 
first  century,  and  to  draw  out  of  the  language  of 
Scripture  meanings  which,  by  accommodation, 
we  have  now  come  to  attach  to  it,  is  not  to  ex- 
pound, but  to  misinterpret.  Under  the  guise  of 
exposition,  I  have  heard  meanings  extracted  from 
the  language  of  prophets  and  apostles,  that  I  am 
sure  would  have  roused  them  into  indignation  to 
have  heard  ascribed  to  them.  To  distinguish 
between  what  the  progress  of  Christianity  has 
developed  as  Christian  thought,  and  what  the 
Scriptures  actually  teach,  requires  a  discernment, 
and  an  extent  and  accuracy  of  knowledge  not 
always  brought  into  exercise  in  expository  preach- 
ing. Many  an  expository  discourse  puts  into  the 
Scriptures  the  larger  portion  of  what  it  claims  to 
find  in   them.     The   amount   thus  put   into  the 


172  KINDS    OF  SERMONS. 

Bible  under  plea  of  expounding  it,  would  be 
found  to  exceed  the  belief  of  any  one  whose 
attention  had  not  already  been  given  to  the  sub- 
ject. No  other  book  in  the  world  could  long  be 
subject  to  such  treatment  and  retain  the  rever- 
ence of  mankind.  The  consequences  to  religious 
life  and  faith  that  in  due  time  must  ensue,  unless 
a  sounder  exegesis  can  be  made  to  prevail,  it  re- 
quires no  special  sagacity  to  foresee. 

The  temptation  to  the  expository  preacher  to 
find  more  in  the  passage  he  has  in  hand  than  it 
actually  contains,  is  easily  explained.  He  must 
bring  out  of  it  more  than  the  printed  commentary 
does,  or  he  will  win  for  himself  no  hearing.  The 
commentary  is  accessible  to  all,  and  is  limited  to 
the  prosy  work  of  telling  just  what  the  passage 
means.  He  must  tell  us  how  much  the  passage 
may  mean,  and  what  it  can  be  made  to  teach. 
He  must  "  open  its  dark  sayings  upon  "  his  own 
"harp."  Taking  a  clause  or  verse  out  of  its  real 
connection,  and  placing  it  in  a  special  setting  of 
his  own,  he  can  make  it  luminous  with  thought 
decidedly  new.  He  can  make  it  utter  what  no 
prophet  or  apostle  ever  dreamed  of.  He  can 
"behold"  more  "wondrous  things  out  of  the  law" 
than  the  Psalmist  even  dared  pray  for.  And  it 
is  wonderful  how  the  passion  for  popular  and 
"fruitful"  exposition  will  grow  on  one  who  is 
capable  of  once  beginning  it.  Every  text  is  looked 
upon  as  having  some  hidden  meaning  which  it  is 
his  special  duty  to  lay  open.  A  passage  of  mod- 
erate length  can  be  made  by  him  to  serve  as  an 
armory  of  religious  equipments.  And  it  is  sur- 
prising with  what  diligence  and  skill  persons  of 


KINDS    OF   SERMONS.  173 

this  class  will  labor  to  turn  a  barren  passage  into 
a  "  fruitful  field."  Words  descriptive  of  some  com- 
mon incident  of  history  are  laid  hold  of  and  made 
to  teach  doctrines  of  grace,  with  which  the  words 
can  only  be  arbitrarily  associated.  But  nothing 
must  be  left  to  stand  in  its  own  simple  and  nat- 
ural sense.  This  would  be  to  fail  in  availing  our- 
selves of  all  the  riches  of  the  word. 

And  so  they  labor,  deeming  holy  ^v^it 
Disgraced  by  aught  that  seems  content  to  sit 
Beneath  the  roof  of  settled  modesty. 

Another  style  of  expository  preaching  is  not 
so  much  dependent  on  the  ingenuity  as  on  the 
imagination  of  the  expositor.  Old  Testament 
scenes  are  filled  out  with  materials  that  only  the 
imagination  can  supply.  New  Testament  occur- 
rences, by  the  aid  of  the  same  faculty,  are  de- 
picted with  all  the  minuteness  of  eye-witnesses. 
Perhaps  we  are  treated  to  a  sermon  on  the  Trans- 
figuration. We  are  entertained  with  an  imaginary 
conversation  between  Moses,  Elijah,  and  Jesus. 
Moses  is  made  to  tell  of  the  dispensation  that 
had  been  entrusted  to  him,  and  of  what  he  had 
thought  of  it  when  on  earth,  and  of  the  flood  of 
light  which  the  teachings  of  Jesus  had  thrown 
backwards  over  it  and  its  laws,  both  ritual  and 
moral.  Elijah  is  made  to  tell  what  he  had  thought 
of  the  Pentateuch,  the  puzzle  he  was  in  to  under- 
stand the  relation  of  the  prophetic  to  the  priestly 
function,  and  how  dim  were  his  conceptions  of 
the  then  distant  reign  of  the  Messiah.  And  Jesus 
is  made  to  explain  and  unfold  the  connection  and 
harmony  of  the  work  of  both  Moses  and  Elijah 


174  KINDS    OF   SERMONS. 

with  his  own.  All  this  might  be  interesting  and 
perhaps  instructive,  but  it  would  not  be  exposi- 
tion. Many  an  expository  sermon  has  thus  been 
drawn  from  the  brain  of  the  preacher,  rather  than 
from  the  text  he  was  professedly  expounding. 

Now  that  the  Scriptures  never  can  properly 
be  used  to  teach  anything  more  than  the  mere 
letter  of  them  affirms,  no  reflecting  person  will 
venture  to  say.  Doubtless,  a  side  lesson  can  and 
ought  sometimes  to  be  drawn  from  an  apparently 
barren  incident.  Many  a  moral  and  religious 
truth  may  be  adduced  from  purely  historical  facts. 
And,  possibly,  an  ingenious  and  imaginative 
man  may,  and  not  illegitimately,  educe  a  medley 
of  doctrines  out  of  words  that  have  no  doctrinal 
significancy;  but,  pray,  do  not  call  his  work  an 
expository  discourse.  A  religious  salamagundi 
is  not  a  Christian  sermon. 

That  Scripture  exposition  might  profitably  be 
made  a  part  of  public  worship  much  more  com- 
monly than  it  now  is;  that  it  might  well  take 
the  place  of  much  that  is  called  preaching,  can 
hardly  be  disputed.  But  it  should  be  genuine 
exposition.  And  maybe  the  good  time  is  not 
distant,  when  Protestant  Christendom  shall  awake 
to  a  more  just  apprehension  of  the  relation  of 
preaching  to  Bible-study  than  now  prevails;  when 
one  sermon  a  Sunday — a  sermon  that  from  the  na- 
ture of  its  subject,  and  the  mode  of  its  treatment, 
shall  be  worthy  of  the  name — shall  be  regarded 
as  enough  for  any  preacher  and  for  any  congre- 
gation; when  a  second  and  afternoon  service,  for 
parents  and  children  alike,  shall  be  devoted  to 
the  special  study  of  the  Bible;  when  the  age,  the 


KINDS    OF  SERMONS.  175 

people,  the  civilization,  and  the  spirit  of  the  time 
in  which  the  portion  studied  was  written,  and 
the  character  and  peculiarities  of  the  writer  shall 
be  made  so  plain  and  real  that  every  word  shall  be 
made  vital  with  meaning.  Then  the  Bible  may 
be  made  a  living  book,  speaking  to  living  men. 
Then  may  the  historical  imagination  and  crit- 
ical exegesis,  joining  hands,  enable  the  preacher 
to  lift  expository  preaching  to  the  dignity  and 
usefulness  that  are  rightfully  its  own. 

But  there  are  two  kinds  of  sermons,  or,  more 
properly  speaking,  two  kinds  of  subjects,  not 
unsuited  to  many  kinds  of  sermons,  to  which 
more  attention,  it  seems  to  me,  ought  to  be  given 
than  they  now  receive.  The  first  relates  to  cases 
of  conscience,  or  casuistry;  the  second,  to  the 
ethics  of  Christianity.  The  two  are  closely  con- 
nected; neither  one  can  be  fully  discussed  with- 
out raising  questions  that  run  directly  into  the 
other.  From  various  causes,  neither  of  these  now 
occupies  the  relative  position  among  other  sub- 
jects that  they  once  held.  Let  us  see  what  their 
true  position  is,  and  what  can  be  done  towards 
placing  them  in  it. 

Casuistry,  I  know,  has  at  present  a  very  bad 
meaning.  The  Jesuits  have  put  into  it  a  sense  of 
which  nothing  avails  to  relieve  it.  The  oppro- 
brious meaning  has  expelled  it  from  the  mind  of 
many,  and  with  it  and  its  evil  meaning,  all  the 
good  things  it  once  represented.  Cases  of  con- 
science with  the  Jesuits  were  imaginary  cases,  and 
often  such  as  no  imagination  should  have  been 
allowed  to  picture.  They  also  taught,  in  the  ex- 
position of  their  cases,  that  the  attainment  of  good 


176  KINDS    OF  SERMONS. 

ends  would  justify  the  use  of  evil  means;  in  other 
words,  that  the  end  justifies  the  means.  But  cas- 
uistry is  not  necessarily  Jesuitical.  Cases  of  con- 
science have  always  existed,  they  always  will 
exist,  and  will  ask  for  solution.  So  long  as  so- 
ciety exists,  individual  perplexities  will  arise. 
Guidance  out  of  these  perplexities  into  the  plain 
and  open  way,  is  one  of  the  prime  offices  of  the 
religious  teacher.  No  persons  are  surer  to  be 
found  in  their  places  of  worship  on  Sunday,  than 
those  by  whom  the  need  of  guidance  is  most 
keenly  felt. 

And  it  is  not  alone  those  who  seek  that  need 
to  be  thus  guided.  They  often  need  it  most,  who 
seek  it  least.  The  young  and  inexperienced  are 
surrounded  by  invisible  dangers;  they  are  haunted 
by  treacherous  thoughts,  and  dogged  by  tempta- 
tions that  flatter  only  to  betray.  But  they  ask 
no  advice,  because  they  apprehend  no  danger.  If 
their  feet  begin  to  slide,  and  their  hearts  to  yield, 
they  are  still  confident  of  their  ability  to  stand. 
Never  were  the  dangers  of  the  young  greater  than 
in  our  own  time  and  land. 

Nor  yet,  is  it  to  the  inexperienced  alone  that 
casuistical  instruction  can  be  made  serviceable.  No 
one  is  so  old  that  no  new  trial  can  come  to  him. 
New  days  are  ever  bringing  new  complications. 
Nor  can  any  degree  of  experience  make  him  who 
is  in  the  midst  of  the  complications  the  most  com- 
petent to  bring  himself  out  of  them. 

But  in  casuistical  preaching,  the  cases  dwelt  on 
should  be  neither  the  actual  well-known  ones  of 
the  hearers,  nor  the  imaginary  ones  of  the  preacher. 
The  first  would  be  personal,  and,  as  such,  offen- 


KINDS    OF   SERMONS.  Ill 

sive,  and  so  fail  of  their  object;  the  second,  from 
their  very  unreality,  would  be  profitless.  Am- 
plest materials  are  found  in  the  bits  of  personal 
history  scattered  throughout  the  Bible.  The  Bible 
is  a  mirror  for  all  men  through  all  time.  Human 
nature  being  the  same  in  every  age,  the  preacher, 
who  paints  the  real  portrait  of  Scripture  person- 
ages, presents  what  all  recognize  as  genuine;  and 
if  he  dissects  a  Scripture  character,  showing  the  dif- 
ficulties, the  trials  and  triumphs  or  defeats,  through 
which  it  was  formed,  he  cannot  fail  to  throw  a 
most  useful  light  on  existing  conflicts  in  the  hearts 
of  his  hearers.  This  kind  of  casuistry  in  the  pul- 
pit is  always  useful.  It  is  specially  needed  in  our 
time.  The  materials  for  it  are,  to  a  great  degree, 
an  unworked  mine  of  the  Bible.  To  succeed  in  it 
would  require  a  minute  study  of  personal  narratives ; 
but  success  in  it  is  not  impossible  for  any  one  of 
ordinary  endowments,  and  a  fair  degree  of  patient 
industry;  and  success  in  it  would  be  an  immense 
relief  from  a  monotony  of  subjects  that  sometimes 
becomes  unendurably  wearisome. 

To  give  to  cases  of  conscience  the  kind  of  at- 
tention here  advocated,  would  be  to  secure  to 
experiental  preaching  its  rightful  position.  It 
would  restore  all  that  was  good  in  that  once 
common,  but  now  neglected  style  of  preaching. 
The  style  fell  into  desuetude  from  several  causes, 
not  the  least  of  which  was  the  feeling  that  it  is  not 
in  good  taste  for  one  to  lay  bare  to  the  public  the 
sacred  privacies  of  his  own  heart.  But  in  expound- 
ing Scripture  cases,  the  preacher  could  draw  on 
his  own  experience  as  much  as  he  should  choose, 
but  without  declaring  it;  in  fact,  he  could  expound 


178  KINDS    OF   SERMONS. 

intelligently  only  in  the  light  shed  from  his  own 
bosom.  Guided  by  his  own  experience,  he  could 
expound  his  Scripture  case,  and  thereby  give  light 
to  the  darkened,  and  minister  relief  to  the  troubled 
among  his  hearers. 

Protestant  churches  have  now  for  a  long  time 
been  discussing  the  great  doctrines  of  Christianity, 
and  enforcing  its  practical  duties;  but  it  is  a  grave 
question  whether  they  have  given  due  attention 
to  that  "cure  (care)  of  souls"  which  provides  for 
individual  guidance  amid  anxious  and  often  most 
perplexing  trials.  Protestants  have  discarded  the 
confessional  as  more  dangerous  than  useful.  They 
have  banished  books  of  casuistry  as  untrustworthy 
and  misleading.  With  the  exception  of  pastoral 
advice  for  those  who  will  seek  it,  no  uniform  and 
systematic  provision  is  made  for  individual  guidance. 
Methodists.it  is  true,have  tried  their  class-meetings, 
and  Baptists  their  church  covenant  meetings,  but 
not  with  a  success,  in  either  case,  that  is  likely  to 
prolong  the  trial,  even  where  it  has  not  already 
been  virtually  abandoned.  Habitual  introspec- 
tion, for  the  purpose  of  reporting  the  results  of 
our  observations,  is  not  the  surest  means  of  pro- 
moting the  best  kind  of  spiritual  life.  Spiritual 
activity  is  a  condition  of  spiritual  hygiene  for 
which  there  can  be  no  substitute;  and  no  gymnas- 
tic is  so  conducive  to  health  of  soul  as  untiring 
exertion  for  the  good  of  others.  To  supply 
motives  to  exertion,  the  grand  reliance  of  Protes- 
tants is  the  pulpit;  but  Protestants  should  be  care- 
ful to  make  the  pulpit  do  its  whole  work.  One 
part  of  that  work  is  so  to  shape  its  instruction  as 
to  throw  light  in  upon  the  conflicts  of  individual 


KINDS    OF   SERMONS.  179 

hearts,  and  thus  relieve  from  painful  and,  often, 
most  dangerous,  bewilderments.  Total  neglect 
of  what  transpires  within  the  chambers  of  the  soul 
is  to  leave  the  castle  to  be  betrayed  into  the  hands 
of  the  enemy  by  traitors  from  within.  More  cas- 
uistical preaching  would  give  us  fewer  of  those 
instances  of  lamentable  lapse  from  Christian 
integrity  that  now  so  often  startle  the  Christian 
world. 

Inseparable  from  casuistry  are  the  ethics  of 
Christianity.  No  real  case  of  conscience  can  be 
truly  solved  except  under  the  authority  of  inex- 
orable moral  law.  No  one  can  tell  what  he  ought 
to  do,  except  as  moral  law  with  authority  declares 
it  to  him.  But  by  the  ethics  of  Christianity,  I  do 
not  mean  merely  the  practical  duties  which  Chris- 
tians as  such  are  expected  and  required  to  perform. 
This  is  a  narrow,  and  in  its  effects  a  mischievous, 
notion.  But  by  the  ethics  of  Christianity,  I  mean 
that  fundamental  conception  of  it,  which  makes 
the  aim  and  purpose,  though  not  the  methods,  of 
the  gospel  to  be  one  and  identical  with  the  aim 
and  purpose  of  moral  law;  which  conceives  the 
gospel  to  be  a  scheme,  not  for  evasion  of  moral 
obligation,  nor  yet  for  mere  removal  of  moral 
penalty,  but  a  scheme  for  bringing  man  into  the 
completest  obedience  to  the  whole  law  of  God. 

But  to  every  intelligent  observer  of  the  tendency 
of  our  popular  Christianity  in  recent  years,  it  must 
have  been  painfully  apparent  that  a  new  and  sub- 
tle spirit  of  antinomianism  has  been  very  rapidly 
gaining  ground  among  us.  It  shows  itself  in  some 
of  our  latest  religious  songs,  not  in  our  old  psalms 
and  hymns,  but  in  new  songs  that  do  not  always 


180  KINDS    OF  SERMONS. 

rise  above  the  level  of  doggerel;  it  animates  a 
large  amount  of  our  Sunday-school  literature;  it 
inspires  many  preachers  who  are  wholly  uncon- 
scious of  its  presence  or  its  tendency  in  their  re- 
ligious thinking.  Many  causes  have  contributed 
to  the  creation  and  diffusion  of  this  new  antino- 
mianism.  Among  these,  may  be  mentioned  the 
notion  that  the  one  test  of  a  pastor's  usefulness 
is  the  number  of  additions  to  his  church;  that  the 
end  of  the  gospel  is  accomplished  in  conversion; 
that  the  doctrine  of  imputation,  so  effective  in  the 
hot-bed  process  of  the  evangelists,  should  be 
the  foremost  truth  in  all  pulpit  ministrations; 
that  the  ethics  of  Christianity  will  be  fully  pro- 
vided for,  if  only  the  religious  emotions  can  be 
kept  alive  and  sufficiently  fervid.  In  consequence 
of  these  notions,  a  sermon  is  accounted  useful  in 
proportion  as  it  awakens  a  certain  class  of  emo- 
tions; the  degree  of  one's  emotions  is  taken  as 
the  gauge  of  his  piety;  and  worst  of  all,  one's  relig- 
ion is  allowed,  in  no  small  degree,  to  expend 
itself  in  fervid  expressions  of  emotion.  Antino- 
mianism  and  emotionalism  need  not  long  be  in 
the  ascendency  to  introduce  an  incipient  fanati- 
cism, against  which  every  intelligent  pastor  will 
wish  to  guard  both  himself  and  his  flock. 

A  more  distinct  and  emphatic  presentation  of 
the  ethical  side  of  Christianity  would  serve  as  an 
antidote  to  the  rapidly  growing  license  so  char- 
acteristic of  our  time.  A  comparison  of  the  so- 
cial life  of  to-day  with  that  of  a  century,  or  even 
of  a  half  century,  ago,  reveals  a  marvelous  change. 
Doubtless,  in  many  respects,  the  change  has 
been  for  the  better.     But  extremes  are  always 


KINDS    OF   SERMONS.  181 

dangerous.  Various  forces  are  now  bearing  us 
unmistakably  onward  towards  the  extreme  of 
license.  Among  these  are,  a  manifest  reaction 
against  the  Puritanic  strictness  that  once  ruled 
among  us;  the  introduction  of  foreign  customs 
and  ideas;  and  the  seductions  of  wealth.  Let  us 
glance  at  these  in  their  order. 

Puritanism  was  not  lovely  even  in  the  softened 
aspects  under  which  it  showed  itself  no  longer 
than  fifty  years  ago.  It  never  was  truthfully 
representative  of  the  religion  of  Jesus.  Its  legal- 
ism was  foreign  to  the  real  spirit  of  the  gospel. 
But  its  origin  was  natural;  it  was  the  inevitable 
reaction,  under  Biblical  enlightenment,  against 
the  reigning  profligacy  and  prelacy  of  England. 
But  the  Puritans  have  received  unmerited  abuse. 
Incessant  disparagement,  under  the  ever-present 
law  of  revulsion  in  all  social  and  religious  ex- 
tremes, has  produced  its  natural  result.  Already, 
we  are  well  nigh  at  the  flood  tide  of  reaction 
against  the  Puritans  as  extreme  as  was  theirs 
against  the  looseness  of  their  day.  Our  only  safe- 
guard is  in  a  clear  apprehension  of  all  the  require- 
ments, as  well  as  of  the  provisions  of  our  holy 
religion.  The  one  remedy  for  self-indulgence 
and  social  laxity,  in  any  age,  is  in  a  proper 
presentation  of  the  ethical  side  of  Christianity. 

Directly  in  line  with,  and  intensifying  the  re- 
action against  a  former  and  over-rigid  strict- 
ness, are  the  imported  influences  from  other 
lands.  Foreign  travel,  now  grown  to  enormous 
proportions,  has  familiarized  many  of  the  more 
prosperous  classes  of  Americans  with  customs 
and  modes  of  life  very  unlike  our  own.     Not  a 


182  KINDS    OF  SERMONS. 

few  of  these  customs  have  been  introduced  under 
the  guise  of  improvements  in  our  civilization. 
Introduced  by  those  who  in  some  sense  are  ac- 
counted leaders  in  society,  it  is  natural  that  the 
rank  and  file  should  readily  follow  their  example. 
The  result  is  that  the  social  forces  among  us  are 
now  moving  with  almost  resistless  current  tow- 
ards a  license  that  our  grandfathers  would  have 
contemplated  with  horror.  Added  to  all,  is  the 
influx  of  the  representatives  of  many  nations  and 
races  whose  customs  and  religious  ideas  are  the 
reverse  of  what  we  have  regarded  as  not  only 
American,  but  as  distinctively  Christian.  The 
social  and  Christian  life,  and  even  the  Christian 
ideas,  of  Americans  are  in  an  alarming  state  of 
transition.  And  it  is  not  a  religion  of  merely 
pious  sentiments  and  fervid  emotions  that  is  to 
lead  us  on  and  out  to  a  land  and  time  in  which 
we  can  be  grounded  in  truth  and  established  in 
righteousness.  If  Christianity  is  to  do  its  office 
of  controlling  all  the  conflicting  forces  now  at 
work  in  our  country;  if  it  is  to  organize  these 
into  a  harmonious  whole;  if  it  is  to  give  to  us  a 
consistent  and  healthy  Christian  life;  if  it  is  to 
create  and  perpetuate  among  the  American  peo- 
ple a  type  of  truly-Christian  civilization,  it  must 
do  it,  it  can  only  do  it,  by  setting  forth  with 
ever-increasing  distinctness  that  moral  law  which 
is  at  once  the  beginning  and  the  end  of  all  true 
religion. 

In  co-operation  with  all  the  other  forces  that 
are  now  hurrying  us  onward  towards  the  ex- 
treme of  license,  are  the  seductions  of  wealth. 
Never  since  the  race  of  man  began,  were  the  av- 


KINDS    OF   SERMONS.  183 

enues  to  wealth  so  many,  or  so  wide  open  to  all 
who  will  enter,  as  they  now  are  in  America. 
Never  before  were  fortunes  colossal  "beyond  the 
dreams  of  avarice,"  so  easily  and  so  quickly  ac- 
quired. Never  before  was  the  heart  of  society  so 
universally  inflamed  with  desire  for  acquisition. 
The  one  absorbing  thought  of  the  young  is,  how 
to  accumulate  a  fortune.  A  feverish  unrest  leaves 
little  time,  and  still  less  taste,  for  religion.  The 
present  pursuits  of  gain  throw  into  the  back- 
ground, if  not  entirely  out  of  sight,  the  realities 
of  a  future  life.  And  when  wealth  is  gained, 
the  thousand  forms  of  self-indulgence  to  which 
it  tempts,  are  all  in  harmony  with  that  general 
laxity  towards  which  society  is  from  other  causes 
already  so  rapidly  moving.  Too  much  honor  can 
hardly  be  given  to  the  many  among  us  who,  amid 
all  the  allurements  of  wealth,  have  maintained 
unsullied  purity  of  character,  have  practiced  the 
strictest  self-denial,  and  with  never  tiring  benefi- 
cence have  scattered  their  gifts  far  and  wide.  But 
in  our  country,  as  a  whole,  it  cannot  be  denied 
that  one  of  the  perils  of  our  religion — one  of  the 
forces  leading  directly  to  laxity  of  morals — is  the 
desire  for,  and  the  accumulation  of  riches.  To 
men  and  women  amid  such  trials,  the  gospel 
should  speak  with  the  tone  and  emphasis  of  the 
beatitudes,  with  all  the  searching  and  sifting 
spirit  of  the  ethics  that  runs  throughout  the  Ser- 
mon on  the  Mount. 

In  acceleration  of  the  tendencies  away  from 
strictness  of  moral  life,  of  which  we  have  thus  far 
spoken,"  are  the  influences  of  two  theoretical  er- 
rors, now  diligently  disseminated.     One  of  these 


184:  KINDS    OF  SERMONS. 

is  a  theological  assumption  respecting  what  should 
be  our  fundamental  conception  of  God  that  un- 
derlies no  small  amount  of  current  religious  teach- 
ing; the  other  is  the  proposition  advocated  by  a 
growing  number  of  scientists  and  philosophers, 
that  morality  and  religion  are  wholly  distinct  and 
separate,  the  former  being  in  no  way  dependent 
on  the  latter,  and  the  latter  furnishing  no  sure 
and  permanent  ground  for  the  former. 

As  to  the  theological  assumption,  it  is  claimed 
by  many  professed  teachers  of  the  Christian  re- 
ligion, that  the  most  fundamental  conception  we 
are  authorized,  either  by  nature  or  revelation,  to 
form  of  God,  is  that  of  an  infinitely  benevolent 
Being.  It  is  evident,  they  tell  us,  from  the  whole 
constitution  and  course  of  nature,  that  the  fore- 
most thought  in  the  mind  of  the  Creator  was  the 
welfare  and  happiness  of  man.  From  the  laying 
of  the  corner-stone  of  the  world  until  now,  all 
things,  we  are  assured,  have  worked  and  were 
intended  to  work  together  solely  for  human  good. 
The  origin  of  man,  it  is  said,  was  from  an  irre- 
pressible overflow  of  Divine  beneficence.  The 
universe  is  made  for  the  express  purpose  of  min- 
istering to  his  pleasure.  And  what  nature  is  thus 
made  to  teach,  the  Bible  is  cited  as  confirming. 
Thus,  it  was  the  infinite  love  of  God  that 
prompted  the  gift  of  his  Son  to  die  for  men. 
The  one  Divine  attribute  that  underlies  and  cov- 
ers and  controls  every  other,  is  love.  Every 
other  attribute  of  the  Godhead  is  subordinated 
to  the  display  of  that.  Jehovah  is  thus  repre- 
sented as  the  infinite  Caterer  of  the  universe, 
and    his    Son   Jesus    Christ    is   specially  deputed 


KINDS    OF   SERMONS.  185 

to  the  one  office  of  proclaiming  his  supreme  re- 
gard for  man.  Instead  of  setting  forth  his  love, 
as  the  Scriptures  do,  on  the  background  of  his 
infinite  holiness  and  justice,  they  give  it  with  no 
background  whatever.  God  is  nothing  but  love. 
Punishment  is  accordingly,  only  reformatory;  hell 
will  be  temporary;  all  the  race  will  be  finally 
saved.  And  for  all  this  mawkish  sentimentality, 
there  is  no  antidote  like  that  of  the  sterner  as- 
pects of  the  gospel  as  given  in  the  teachings  of 
our  Lord  himself. 

Another  and  very  different  notion  from  the 
last  named  is  now  working  insidiously  towards 
a  much  greater  laxity  of  morals  than  has  yet  been 
reached;  it  is  the  notion  that  morality  and  re- 
ligion have  no  necessary  connection,  the  one  being 
strictly  a  matter  of  prudential  calculation,  and  the 
other  of  sentiment.  Man  is  moral,  it  is  said,  sim- 
ply because  he  sees  that  morality  is  best  for  him; 
he  is  religious,  because  of  the  emotions  of  awe 
which  the  immensity  of  the  universe  and  his  own 
sense  of  dependence  awaken  within  him.  Nat- 
ural science,  under  guidance  of  the  doctrine  of 
evolution,  now  claims  to  have  placed  morals,  or 
the  science  of  ethics,  on  an  immovable  basis  wholly 
dissevered  from  religion.  But  to  divorce  morality 
from  religion  is  to  contradict  the  moral  conscious- 
ness of  man;  is  to  deny  the  authority  of  conscience 
that  rules  in  both  religion  and  morality,  uniting 
them  into  one;  is  to  overthrow  the  foundations 
of  both  morality  and  religion  alike.  Without  the 
authority  of  conscience,  and  a  loving  regard  for 
its  behests,  morality  loses  the  only  principle  that 
can  give  it  life;  it  is  an  empty  shell,  a  painted 


186  KINDS    OF   SERMONS. 

semblance.  And  a  religion  without  conscience, 
is  a  shadow  without  a  substance — the  spectral 
creation  of  an  imagination  that  has  no  trustworthy 
materials  to  work  with. 

That  there  have  been  religions  that  were  not 
moral,  that  were  even  immoral  in  both  spirit  and 
form,  no  one  will  dispute.  That  there  have  also 
been  types  of  morality  among  different  nations 
that  were  not  rooted  in  their  religions,  may  be 
readily  admitted.  But  if  there  be  any  one  charac- 
teristic of  the  Christian  religion  more  marked  than 
any  other,  it  is  its  unyielding  regard  for  moral 
obligation.  At  the  foundation  of  Judaism,  out 
of  which  sprang  Christianity,  lies  the  moral  law. 
And  nothing  is  more  noticeable  in  the  teachings 
of  Christ  as  recorded  in  the  Gospels  than  the 
persistency  and  emphasis  with  which  he  enforced 
the  ethics  of  his  religion.  And  the  Apostles,  even 
when  dilating  most  on  the  relation  of  Christ's 
death  and  of  our  faith  in  him  to  our  salvation, 
never  lose  sight  of  the  connection  of  the  whole 
with  the  moral  life  of  the  believer.  They  never 
give  a  shadow  of  ground  for  the  grievous  blunder 
of  so  magnifying  the  vicariousness  and  gratuity 
of  our  salvation,  as  to  disparage  the  office  of  law 
for  the  believer;  or  of  implying  for  an  instant 
that  it  can  ever  be  the  office  of  the  gospel  to 
erase  from  the  heart  its  sense  of  duty:  or  of 
implying  that  its  completed  office  can  ever  be 
aught  else  than  that  of  re-writing  the  whole  law 
on  the  heart  of  every  believer. 

The  one  great  office  of  Christianity  is  to  bridge 
the  gulf  that  separates  man  from  God,  to  throw 
across  it  a  highway  of  righteousness,  over  which 


KINDS    OF  SERMONS.  187 

all  peoples  may  travel  in  gladness  and  peace.  But 
it  is  a  highway  that  rests  on  the  eternal  laws  that 
bind  man  to  God.  And  never  a  soul  can  cross 
it,  whose  every  foot-fall  is  not  on  some  duty  that 
holds  him  firmly  to  the  great  laws  that  underlie 
the  whole;  laws  anchored  at  one  terminus  in  the 
eternal  nature  of  God,  and  at  the  other,  in  the 
nature  of  man  that  bears  the  image  of  God;  laws 
as  unwavering  in  their  hold  as  the  pillars  of  the 
eternal  throne.  The  gospel  is  the  fulfilment  and 
consummation  of  all  that  the  creation  contem- 
plated, all  that  the  government  of  the  world  has 
provided  for,  and  all  that  the  death  and  resurrec- 
tion of  Christ  have  made  possible;  it  transforms 
men  into  law-loving  and  obedient  sons  of  God. 


LECTURE   VIII. 

METHODS   OF   DELIVERY:    EXTEMPORANEOUS 
PREACHING. 

Every  one  looking  forward  to  the  pulpit  finds 
himself,  sooner  or  later,  endeavoring  to  decide 
what  shall  be  his  method  of  delivering  his  ser- 
mons. Every  one  wishes,  of  course,  to  adopt 
the  best  method.  What  method  will  be  the 
best  for  each  one  personally,  experience  alone 
can  determine.  That  one,  however,  will  ordi- 
narily be  adopted  to  which  taste  or  accident 
first  leads,  and  practice  soon  habituates. 

Of  the  three  prevailing  methods,  each  has  its 
advocates,  and  each  its  special  advantages  and 
disadvantages.  According  to  the  first  method 
the  whole  sermon  is  written  out  and  read  with 
more  or  less  closeness  of  attention  to  the  manu- 
script. The  second,  writes  in  full,  commits  to 
memory,  and  repeats  as  nearly  as  possible,  just 
what  has  been  written.  The  third,  elaborates 
the  thought  beforehand,  but  trusts  to  the  oc- 
casion for  most  of  the  language  in  which  the 
thoughts  shall  be  expressed.  But  the  classifica- 
tion is  only  general  and  by  no  means  exact;  one 
and  the  same  sermon  may  partake,  in  different 


METHODS    OF  DELIVERY.  189 

parts  of  it,  of  all  three  of  the  methods  of 
delivery. 

As  to  the  first  method,  much  may  be  said  both 
for  and  against  it;  but  all  that  can  be  said  on 
either  side  is  sufficiently  obvious  at  a  glance.  It 
insures  greater  accuracy  of  language  than  either 
of  the  others.  It  ought  to  insure  more  carefully 
digested  thought,  though  in  this  it  not  unfre- 
quently  fails.  But,  where  sufficient  pains  are 
taken,  it  gives  opportunity  for  a  completeness 
of  thought  and  a  finish  of  language  that  can  be 
attained  in  no  other  way,  and  for  this  reason, 
most  educated  people  prefer  it  to  any  other. 
The  thought  once  written  out  can  also  be  used 
again,  though  this  is  an  advantage  that  is  to 
be  reckoned  with  some  degree  of  allowance 
No  other  method  makes  so  little  draught  on 
the  nervous  energy  of  the  preacher.  But,  in 
reading,  to  say  nothing  of  the  time  consumed 
in  writing,  the  manuscript  always  comes  between 
the  preacher  and  his  auditors;  a  written  style  is 
always  more  elaborate  and  bookish  than  an  un- 
written; reading  is  more  monotonous  than  speak- 
ing; no  degree  of  excellence  in  reading,  however 
high,  can  ever  give  the  best  written  sermon  the 
effectiveness  with  an  average  Sunday  congrega- 
tion, of  one  that,  having  been  thoroughly  thought 
out  is  delivered  in  the  best  unwritten  language 
that  careful  preparation  and  previous  training 
make  possible. 

As  respects  the  practice  of  writing  and  com- 
mitting to  memory,  less  can  be  said  in  support 
of  it  than  of  any  other  method.  This  much,  how- 
ever, can  be  said  in  favor  of  it;  it  can  insure  all 


190  METHODS    OF  DELIVERY: 

the  accuracy  of  language  and  thought  attainable 
by  reading,  and  it  releases  the  eye  and  head  from 
the  awkward  restraints  of  that  method,  thus  giv- 
ing all  the  apparent  advantages  of  extemporaneous 
address.  But  this  is  all  that  can  be  said  in  its 
behalf  Much  more,  on  the  contrary,  can  be  said 
against  it.  In  the  first  place,  it  requires  more  time 
to  prepare  for  it  than  any  other.  Useful  as  it  may 
be  on  great  and  rare  occasions,  to  adopt  it  uni- 
formly is  to  incur  a  prodigal  waste  of  time.  No 
amount  of  facility  in  committing  to  memory  can 
make  it  an  economical  way  of  expending  either 
time  or  nervous  energy. 

Then  again,  memorizing  entails  very  many  of 
the  drawbacks  of  reading,  without  giving  any  of 
the  real  advantages  of  extemporaneous  address. 
Monotony  and  wearisome  sameness  of  cadence  are 
almost  inevitable.  The  speaker's  supposed  ad- 
vantages with  the  audience  of  appearing  to  speak 
extempore,  is  largely  an  illusion.  Every  discern- 
ing hearer  sees  through  it.  The  abstracted  look 
and  the  lusterless  eye  at  once  betray  the  action 
of  memory.  The  mind's  eye  of  the  speaker,  in- 
stead of  reading  the  countenances  of  his  audience, 
is  in  his  library  running  down  the  pages  of  his 
manuscript.  The  whole  process  is  mechanical. 
Memory  alone  of  all  his  mental  powers  is  brought 
into  exercise.  Reason  is  dormant;  imagination 
is  held  in  abeyance;  even  the  sensibilities  are 
comparatively  unmoved.  The  whole  power  of  the 
speaker  is  concentrated  on  the  single  act  of  re- 
calling what  he  has  written. 

Then  a  third  objection  to  the  practice  of  uni- 
formly memorizing  one's  sermons,  is  the  injury  it 


EXTEMPORANEOUS   PREACHING.  191 

entails  to  the  memory.  To  misuse  any  faculty  is 
to  abuse  and  to  weaken  it.  It  is  a  misuse  and  so 
an  injury  to  memory  to  employ  it  habitually  and 
purposely  in  a  merely  temporary  retention  of 
what  is  committed  to  it.  A  sermon  is  committed 
to  memory  simply  for  the  occasion,  and  is  forgot- 
ten almost  as  soon  as  delivered.  Where  the 
practice  is  continued  from  week  to  week,  each 
new  sermon  washes  away  all  traces  of  the  pre- 
ceding. Each  one  slipping  away  from  memory 
as  soon  as  delivered,  takes  along  with  it  also 
something  valuable  that  was  connected  with  it — 
some  historical  fact  or  philosophical  principle, 
that  should  have  been  retained  as  a  permanent 
possession.  A  memory  trained  to  temporary  re- 
tention, soon  acquires  the  habit  of  retaining  only 
temporarily,  and  of  dealing  in  the  same  way  with 
the  larger  portion  of  whatever  is  intrusted  to  it. 
No  one  can  practice  this  method  and  grow  rapidly 
either  in  mental  resources  or  in  intellectual  power; 
very  few,  if  any,  can  continue  it  through  a  lifetime, 
and  develop  any  considerable  degree  of  ability, 
or  any  marked  excellence  as  a  preacher. 

The  third  general  method  of  preaching  is  the 
so-called  extemporaneous.  But  the  designation 
is  unfortunate.  No  sensible  man  goes  before  an 
audience  with  unpremeditated  thought,  nor  with 
wholly  unpremeditated  language.  In  fact,  to 
think  out  thought  at  all  is  to  think  it  in  words; 
and  when  the  attempt  is  made  to  express  the 
thought,  it  will  be  expressed  in  the  words  in  which 
it  has  been  thought  out.  All  that  can  justly  be 
expressed  by  the  term  extemporaneous  is  that 
the  final  and  complete  clothing  is  given  to  the 


192  METHODS    OF  DELIVERY: 

thought  at  the  moment  of  delivery.  Citations 
of  Scripture  and  quotations  from  authors  must,  of 
course,  be  committed  to  memory.  Paragraphs 
where  the  thought  and  expression  need  to  be 
precise  may  be  written  out  and  made  thoroughly 
clear  to  the  mind  and  perhaps  memorized;  but 
to  be  extemporaneous,  the  language  of  a  sermon, 
as  a  whole,  must  be  unwritten  and  simply  spoken. 

In  defense  of  this  way  of  preaching,  for  very 
many,  and,  possibly,  for  a  majority,  of  Christian 
pastors,  very  much  can  justly  be  said.  In  behalf 
of  it,  for  the  larger  proportion  of  Sunday  congre- 
gations in  this  country,  still  more  could  be  said, 
but  will  not  be,  in  this  lecture.  But  to  recom- 
mend it  for  all  men  and  for  all  congregations  is 
another  thing  and  something  which  this  lecture 
will  by  no  means  do. 

One  of  the  most  evident  considerations  in  favor 
of  "extemporaneous  preaching  is  its  economy  of 
time.  Never  was  time  so  precious  to  mortals  as 
it  is  to-day.  Never  was  the  minister  of  the  gos- 
pel under  such  obligations  to  husband  his  use  of 
it  as  in  this  generation.  Never  were  his  duties 
so  numerous;  never  his  opportunities  of  all  kinds 
so  manifold;  never  the  demand  that  he  shall  be 
well  informed  so  imperative.  The  religious 
teacher  and  leader,  who  in  this  day  will  have 
any  following  from  intelligent  people,  must  have 
a  well-furnished  mind,  and  to  have  this,  must 
waste  no  hours  in  needless  work.  But  the  amount 
of  time  that  any  one  who  is  to  read  all  his  ser- 
mons, be  they  but  one  a  week,  must  spend  at  his 
desk  in  writing  them,  will  make  an  enormous  de- 
duction from  the  sum  total  of  time  at  his  disposal 


EXTEMPORANEOUS   PREACHING.  193 

for  work;  a  deduction  that  forbids  the  acquisition 
of  materials  that  would  be  of  inestimable  value  to 
him  in  his  calling.  Ten  hours  a  week  is  a  low 
average  allowance  for  it.  Many  men  spend  twice 
as  much.  After  deducting  for  exchanges,  sum- 
mer vacations  and  other  reliefs,  we  have,  at  the 
least,  four  hundred  hours,  amounting  to  forty  days 
a  year  of  ten  hours  each,  spent  in  the  purely  me- 
chanical labor  of  writing.  The  truth,  probably,  is 
that  the  average  of  ministers,  who  write  and  read 
their  sermons,  spend  nearer  fifty  days  a  year  in 
the  mere  labor  of  putting  their  sermons  on  paper. 
We  say  nothing  of  the  effect  on  the  health  of 
sitting  or  standing  with  bent  head  and  cramped 
chest  in  this  toil  of  writing;  of  writing  large 
amounts  of  what  will  never  be  worth  a  second 
thought  the  instant  after  it  has  been  once  read 
from  the  pulpit.  Let  another  man  spend  his 
forty  or  fifty  days  a  year  in  pushing  his  inquiries 
along  the  thousand  avenues  of  knowledge  now  open 
to  him;  and  is  there  any  doubt  which  of  the  two 
should  in  due  time  become  the  stronger  and  more 
effective  as  a  leader  of  thinking  men  1  The  one 
spends  some  of  his  best  strength  in  the  clothing 
of  his  thought  in  language;  the  other  in  gathering 
materials  for  thought  and  in  giving  to  his  thought 
mass  of  muscle  and  strength  of  sinew.  The  first 
will  be  very  likely  to  remind  you  of  the  lamp  and 
the  library  more  than  the  second;  and  the  second 
more  than  the  first  of  the  existing  relation  of 
Christian  life  to  the  world  of  living  thought  and 
action.  He  who  preaches  unwritten  sermons  can 
make  them  as  he  takes  daily  exercise  in  the  open 
air;  as  he  passes  to  and  fro  in  his  pastoral  visita- 


194  METHODS    OF  DELIVERY: 

tion;  as  he  lies  down  at  night,  and  as  he  rises  in 
the  morning.  Many  a  minor  point  can  be  thought 
out  into  clearness  between  the  moment  of  awak- 
ing and  the  instant  of  beginning  work  in  the  study. 
Sermons  thus  made  in  the  open  air,  on  the  street 
or  by  the  wayside,  will  have  a  tone  of  reality, 
an  odor  of  life,  that  mere  library  thinking  and 
writing  can  never  impart  to  them. 

In  unwritten  sermons,  spoken  freely  and  freshly 
from  the  mind  and  heart,  the  preacher  comes  into 
an  immediateness  of  relation  with  his  auditors 
that  never  is  attainable  by  him  who  is  dependent 
on  his  manuscript.  Thfere  exists  a  nameless 
something  acting  and  re-acting  on  the  hearers 
and  the  speaker  as  they  look  into  each  other's 
eyes,  that  no  skill  in  reading  with  stolen  glances 
at  the  audience,  can  ever  render  possible.  The 
hearers  catch  the  speaker's  thoughts  and  emo- 
tions, and  he,  from  their  responsive  looks,  gathers 
new  inspiration  as  he  advances.  The  extempore 
speaker,  who  is  master  of  both  "his  subject  and 
himself,  has  at  the  same  time  a  mastery  over  his 
audience,  such  as  no  other  can  ever  possess. 

The  extemporaneous  discourse  admits  of  an 
easy  naturalness  of  tone  and  manner  of  delivery, 
and,  more  than  that,  of  an  inartificial  simplicity 
of  language  that  never  can  be  given  to  the  written 
discourse.  Writers  of  sermons  have  sometimes 
labored  assiduously  to  give  to  their  language  the 
air  and  construction  of  unpremeditated  speech, 
but  never  with  much  success.  The  writer  men- 
tally repeating  his  sentences  as  he  makes  them, 
inevitably  chooses  his  words  with  more  care,  and 
gives  to  his  sentences  a  more  formal  and  artificial 


EXTEMPORANEOUS   PREACHING.  195 

construction  than  when  he  speaks  straight  on, 
intent  only  on  conveying  his  meaning  with  clear- 
ness and  force.  In  unwritten  speech,  the  proba- 
bilities are  that  the  thoughts  of  the  speaker  will 
find  utterance  in  words  of  Saxon  rather  than  of 
Norman  or  Latin  origin,  in  the  more  common  lan- 
guage of  every-day  life,  and  not  in  the  rarer  lan- 
guage of  books  and  the  schools.  If  he  chooses,  he 
can,  with  naturalness  and  propriety,  descend  to 
the  colloquial  in  both  language  and  intonation; 
or  he  can,  if  occasion  and  his  ability  warrant,  rise 
to  the  level  of  the  sublime  in  thought,  and  of  its 
fittest  expression.  And  many  a  man,  under  the 
strong  mental  excitement  and  inspiration  of  ex- 
temporaneous address,  finds  himself  giving  ut- 
terance to  thoughts  that  then  for  the  first  time 
occur  to  him,  and  uttering  them  in  language  more 
felicitous  than  he  could  possibly  have  commanded 
in  his  study.  And  as  to  elocution,  particularly 
in  the  matter  of  intonation,  emphasis  and  cadence, 
in  which  the  pulpit  has  always  been  most  lamen- 
tably at  fault,  the  extemporaneous  preacher  has, 
if  he  will  but  use  it,  incomparably  the  advantage 
of  the  reader  of  sermons. 

Another  advantage  to  the  speaker  who  is  not 
tied  down  to  his  manuscript,  nor  to  the  memory 
of  what  he  has  written,  is  one  that  some  persons 
at  the  first  blush  may  be  disposed  to  deny  to  him. 
It  nevertheless  is  one  of  which  he  always  may, 
and  ought  to,  avail  himself;  it  is  the  opportunity 
he  has  to  secure  to  himself  a  more  lucid  and 
exactly  logical  order  of  thought  than  is  possible 
for  one  who  writes  and  reads,  unless  he  shall  read 
what  has  been  written  again  and   again.     Very 


196  METHODS    OF  DELIVERY: 

few  men  indeed — scarcely  one  in  a  thousand — can 
make  the  order  of  all  the  thought  of  their  dis- 
courses, at  the  first  writing,  to  be  precisely  what 
they  shall  afterwards  deliberately  approve.  The 
order  of  thought  in  the  unwritten  discourse  may 
be  modified  and  improved  up  to  the  very  mo- 
ment that  delivery  begins.  And  you  can  readily 
see  why  this  may  be  so.  Unwritten  preaching 
as  we  have  before  and  distinctly  said,  is  not  to 
be  regarded  as  the  preaching  of  unpremeditated 
thought.  On  the  contrary,  all  the  thought  is 
supposed  to  have  been  most  carefully  analyzed, 
and  every  part  adjusted  to  its  place  in  a  symmet- 
rical whole.  No  man  of  well-disciplined  intellect 
will  be  willing  to  go  before  an  intelligent  audience 
with  an  unwritten  discourse,  unless  perfectly 
familiar  with  the  line  of  thought  he  intends  to 
pursue.  He  knows  full  well  that  his  attention 
will  be  too  much  engrossed  in  the  expression  of 
his  thought,  to  admit  of  an  instant  of  uncertainty 
at  any  given  point,  as  to  what  the  thought  should 
really  be.  All  this  he  has  settled  beforehand 
And  he  has  settled  it  by  repeatedly  running 
through  it,  with  minuteness  of  analysis,  from 
beginning  to  end.  Any  want  of  connection  is  at 
once  detected;  any  deficiency  in  logic  is  seen  and 
set  right.  But  he  who  has  written,  can  change 
only  by  writing  again — a  remedy  not  always  at 
the  preacher's  command;  hence  the  awkward 
devices  of  phraseology  for  holding  together  the 
disjointed  thoughts  of  many  a  hastily  written 
sermon;  or  the  still  more  awkward  turning  for- 
wards and  backwards  of  the  pages  of  the  manu- 
script by  the  preacher  in  his  clumsy  attempts  to 


EXTEMPORANEOUS    PREACHING.  197 

readjust  the  order  of  what  he  had  written.  The 
truth  is,  that  any  clear  thinker,  who  prepares 
himself  to  speak  without  writing,  is  compelled,  by 
the  very  necessities  of  the  case,  to  give  special 
attention  to  the  order  of  his  thoughts,  and  the 
relation  of  these  to  one  another.  And  as  between 
the  written  and  the  unwritten,  with  the  same 
grade  of  intellects,  the  superiority  in  point  of 
logic  will  be  found  with  him  who  speaks  without 
the  manuscript. 

And  so  again,  with  due  preparation,  more  thought 
can  be  dispensed  in  the  same  length  of  time  by 
unwritten  speech  than  by  writing  and  reading 
This,  I  am  also  aware,  is  directly  the  opposite  of 
what  is  generally  believed.  The  belief  is,  that, 
without  writing  there  is  always  diffuseness,  pro- 
lixity, generalities  and  vagueness,  and  needless 
repetitions.  And  the  belief  is  not  wholly  without 
ground.  With  the  faults  named  extemporizers  are 
not  unfrequently  chargeable.  But  they  are  also 
faults  of  men  rather  than  of  methods.  Writers 
are  by  no  means  free  from  them;  but  he  who  is 
liable  to  them  in  writing  will  be  sure  to  show 
them  in  excess  when  speaking  extempore.  A 
verbosity  which  only  the  pen  can  hold  in  check 
will  run  wild  if  left  to  itself  Before  half  through 
with  the  thought  laid  out  for  a  discourse,  the 
verbose  man  will  tell  an  audience  that  his  time  is 
exhausted,  and  the  remainder  of  what  he  had 
intended  to  say  must  be  reserved  to  another 
occasion.  By  all  means  let  the  verbose  man 
never  fail  to  write  and  to  cleave  to  his  manuscript. 
But  after  making  all  needed  exceptions,  it  still 
remains  true  that  more  thought  can  in  the  same 


198  METHODS    OF  DELIVERY: 

length  of  time  be  packed  into  a  well-digested 
spoken  discourse  than  into  one  written  out  in  full 
and  read.  And  this  is  so,  for  a  few  plain  reasons. 
One  speaks  more  rapidly  than  he  reads ;  the  speaker 
spends  less  time  than  the  writer  in  filling  out  and 
balancing  his  sentences;  shades  of  thought,  qual- 
ifications and  the  like,  which  the  writer  feels 
compelled  to  express  in  words  and  clauses,  the 
speaker  throws  in  by  tone,  look,  gesture;  and  not 
a  little  of  what  the  writer  feels  to  be  nece'ssary  to 
arounded  fulness  of  his  thought,  the  speaker,  intent 
only  on  distinctness  and  vividness  of  impression, 
safely  and  not  unwisely  omits.  And  that  all  this 
is  true,  any  one  may  certify  to  himself  by  writing 
out  a  well-compacted  extempore  discourse  after 
its  delivery.  He  will  find  that,  to  make  it  as  intel- 
ligible in  reading  as  it  had  been  in  speaking,  there 
will  be  more  manuscript  than  can  be  read  in  the 
same  time  that  had  been  required  in  the  speaking. 
But  it  must  be  admitted  that  extempore  preach- 
ing, with  all  that  can  be  said  in  its  favor,  is  attended 
with  many  and  serious  drawbacks.  It  makes  large 
demands;  it  has  its  own  special  dangers  and  trials. 
No  one  should  attempt  to  practice  it  without 
counting  the  cost;  without  having  some  degree 
of  assurance  that  he  possesses  the  strength  of 
nerve  to  bear  the  strain  and  the  will  to  endure 
the  humiliations  and  to  resist  the  temptations  he 
is  sure  to  encounter.  Many  young  preachers  are 
too  strongly  attracted  towards  it.  It  is  always 
in  popular  demand.  Some  try  it  and  fail;  not 
many  ever  succeed  in  carrying  it  to  any  very  high 
degree  of  excellence.  It  is  well,  therefore,  for  us 
to  look  at  it  from  all  sides. 


EXTEMPORANEOUS   PREACHING.  199 

Extempore  preaching  levies  a  severe  tax  on  the 
nervous  energy  of  the  preacher.  He  is  anxious 
while  preparing  his  sermon;  and  no  method  of 
preparation  he  can  adopt  can  relieve  him  of  his 
anxiety.  He  goes  into  the  pulpit  with  his  nervous 
system  excited  possibly  to  a  point  of  extreme 
tension.  Mind,  brain,  and  every  fiber  of  his  frame 
are  concentrated  on  the  one  work  of  delivering 
the  sermon.  In  preparation  by  writing,  the 
preacher's  anxiety,  however  great  at  the  start, 
gradually  subsides  as  the  sentences  multiply,  till 
it  passes  into  agreeable  exhilaration.  With  the 
completion  of  his  sermon  comes  the  serenity  of 
one  whose  task  is  ended.  Putting  the  sermon 
into  his  pocket,  he  enters  the  pulpit  with  the  calm 
composure  of  one  who  is  perfectly  sure  of  himself. 
With  the  extemporizer  everything  is  contingent 
and  uncertain  till  the  sermon  has  been  delivered. 
He  can  only  hope  and  tremblingly  strive,  until 
the  end  is  reached.  No  past  success  can  wholly 
assure  him.  Experience  has  taught  him  that  no 
failures  have  been  so  certain  and  complete,  as 
those  which  were  preceded  by  over-confidence; 
and  no  success  has  been  without  its  accompanying 
condition  of  anxiety.  He  cannot,  if  he  would, 
wholly  allay  his  fears.  When  his  discourse  has 
been  delivered,  he  leaves  the  pulpit  with  the  feeling 
of  one  from  whom  a  great  burden  has  been  rolled: 
but  with  nerves  relaxed,  with  brain  wearied,  with 
heart  agitated,  with  the  feelings  of  one  who  has 
been  literally  in  the  throes  of  delivery.  He  who 
reads,  steps  down  with  the  feeling  of  one  who  has 
performed  a  pleasant  task  that  could  easily  be 
repeated.     No  one  can  long  continue  the  practice 


200  METHODS    OF  DELIVERY: 

of  going  into  the  pulpit  with  the  sermon  in  his 
mind  instead  of  in  his  pocket,  and  not  feel  that  he 
is  paying  a  heavy  tax  for  the  privilege  in  the  draft 
he  is  making  on  his  nervous  energy. 

Whoever  resolves  to  preach  without  first  having 
written  his  sermons,  must  also  expect  some  humil- 
iating disappointments.  By  no  amount  or  kind  of 
preparation  can  he  provide  for  every  emergency. 
His  physical  condition  may  at  the  last  moment 
prove  to  be  such  that  his  powers  are  not  wholly 
at  his  command.  His  subject  may  be  one  to 
which  his  auditors  are  indifferent;  and,  instead  of 
being  quickened  by  their  sympathies,  he  may 
be  depressed  by  their  apathy.  Or,  maybe,  the 
subject  proves  of  far  less  interest  to  himself  than 
in  preparing  his  discourse  he  had  expected. 
Possibly,  he  slips,  and  trips  in  his  introduction; 
and  so  all  that  follows  goes  wrong;  for  it  is  a 
curious  fact  that  a  mis-step  at  the  beginning  is 
pretty  sure  to  entail  successive  stumbles  through- 
out the  discourse.  To  trip  at  the  outset  is  to 
have  one's  attention  diverted  from  his  subject  to 
himself;  diversion  of  attention  brings  discompos- 
ure; and  discomposure,  once  begun,  rarely  if  ever 
knows  a  stopping-place  short  of  the  end  of  the 
discourse.  Diversion  of  one.'s  attention  from  his 
subject  to  his  audience  is  equally  fatal.  Many  a 
well-prepared  extemporaneous  sermon  has  been 
ruined  by  an  unexpected  auditor,  and  many  an- 
other by  auditors  unknown  to  the  preacher,  but 
by  whose  presence  his  attention  has  been  di- 
verted and  his  thoughts  discomposed.  Nothing 
can  save  the  extemporizer  from  disaster,  when 
once  his  attention  is  divided  between  the  subject 


EXTEMPORANEOUS    PREACHING.  201 

of  his  discourse  and  some  auditor  about  whose 
presence  and  whose  opinion  of  the  discourse  he 
is  beginning  to  speculate.  The  highest  excel- 
lence is  his  alone  whose  soul  is  so  filled  with  his 
theme  that  himself  and  the  criticisms  of  his  hearers 
never  so  much  as  once  occur  to  him.  But,  alas  ! 
poor  human  nature  is  never  wholly  secure  against 
the  upspringing  imps  of  vanity  and  pride.  Nothing 
but  the  hard  discipline  of  experience,  and  the 
abounding  grace  of  Christ,  can  so  lift  a  man  out 
of  and  above  himself,  that  in  preaching  he  shall 
think  only  of  his  message  and  of  the  infinite  God 
who  has  bidden  him  utter  it.  Until  experience 
and  grace  have  thus  wrought  for  him  who  will 
preach  without  writing,  he  must  expect  many  a 
sad  and  humbling  failure. 

A  greater  danger  still,  to  him  who  will  preach 
extemporaneously,  lies  in  the  temptation  to  ven- 
ture into  the  pulpit  with  insufficient  preparation; 
and  I  may  also  add  in  the  temptation  to  general 
intellectual  indolence.  As  one  advantage  to  him 
who  will  so  preach,  I  have  previously  mentioned 
the  leisure  it  affords  for  reading  and  investiga- 
tion. But  human  nature  is  almost  always  as  lazy 
as  circumstances  will  permit.  And  circumstances 
will  ordinarily  permit  the  preacher,  whatever  his 
method  of  delivery,  to  amble  along  at  his  ease,  pro- 
ducing at  the  utmost  his  two  sermons  a  week.  He 
does  not  feel  the  iron  necessity  of  every-day  work  in 
his  study.  And  he  who  does  not  write  his  ser- 
mons is  less  constrained  to  daily  toil  than  he 
who  does.  He  discovers  that  in  an  emergency, 
he  can  succeed  in  acquitting  himself  respectably, 
even  on   a    minimum    of  preparation.     Possibly, 


202  METHODS    OF  DELIVERY: 

under  some  sudden  gust  of  inspiration,  he  trans- 
cends himself.  His  auditors  are  delighted.  He 
has  made  a  calamitous  discovery.  What  has  come 
once,  he  half  unconsciously  says  to  himself,  can 
come  again.  Thenceforward,  his  sense  of  the 
need  of  hard  work  and  of  careful  elaboration  of 
his  sermons  is  weakened.  And  withal,  his  con- 
gregation is  one  of  limited  intelligence.  They 
are  more  than  satisfied  with  his  ministrations. 
They  offer  the  incense  of  their  flattery.  He  feels 
no  immediate  need  of  larger  stores  of  knowledge; 
is  not  moved  to  the  acquisition  of  it  by  inward 
desire  for  it;  drifting  in  his  reading  from  one  su- 
perficial treatise  to  another,  squandering,  perhaps, 
some  of  his  best  hours  among  newspapers,  he 
finally  awakes,  at  a  time  when  he  should  be  at 
the  fullness  of  his  fruitage,  to  find  himself  a  man 
of  mere  leaves,  whose  time  of  figs  has  never  come. 
He  finds  that  the  people  to  whom  he  has  long 
ministered  have  grown  weary  of  his  preaching. 
He  has  so  often  repeated  himself  that  he  has  be- 
come to  them  a  thrice-told  tale.  Facile  utter- 
ance and  superficial  work,  have  betrayed  him 
into  endless  iterations.  He  began  well,  but  ends 
a  third-rate  preacher,  when,  with  due  industry, 
he  might  have  been  among  the  first. 

It  must  be  admitted,  however,  that  self-repeti- 
tion is  not  the  danger  of  the  extemporizer  alone. 
The  veriest  slave  of  his  manuscript,  the  man  who 
never  ventures  a  word  beyond  what  he  has  writ- 
ten, likewise  repeats  himself,  though  with  less 
sameness  of  language.  It  will  surprise  any  one 
who  has  not  made  the  experiment,  to  find  how 
difficult  it  is  to  select,  out  of  any  two  hundred  of 


EXTEMPORANEOUS    PREACHING.  203 

a  man's  best  written  sermons,  twenty-five  in  which 
there  are  no  repeated  thoughts.  There  may  be 
variations  in  phraseology  and  modes  of  statement, 
to  suit  the  thoughts  to  the  connections  in  which 
they  occur;  but  they  are  none  the  less  repetitions. 
The  truth  is,  that,  while  no  one,  whatever  his 
mode  of  elaborating  his  sermons,  can  avoid  the 
pitfall  of  self-repetition,  except  through  the  most 
tireless  industry,  none  are  so  liable  to  fall  into 
it  as  they  who  habitually  venture  into  the  pul- 
pit without  carefully-written  discourses.  Let  no 
man  form  the  habit  of  preaching  without  writing, 
who  has  not  first  formed  the  purpose  which  he  is 
sure  nothing  can  break,  that  he  will  work  in  his 
library  with  all  the  regularity  and  patience  and 
fidelity  of  a  man  whose  daily  bread  depends  on 
his  daily  toil. 

But  supposing  the  weight  of  considerations  on 
the  whole  to  be  in  favor  of  extempore  preaching, 
for  whom  shall  it  be  regarded  as  the  best  method. 
No  one,  I  think,  who  has  duly  reflected  on  the 
subject,  can  venture  to  say  that  it  is  best  for  all 
minds.  Some  men  are  so  constituted  as  to  be 
incapable  of  succeeding  with  it.  Chalmers  tried 
it  and  failed.  For  a  mind  so  much  more  rhetori- 
cal than  logical  as  his  was,  and  for  one  who 
thought  so  much  more  in  imagery  than  in  exact 
terms  as  he  did,  the  only  safeguard  against  a 
promiscuous  tumble  of  words  and  images  into  a 
confused  and  confusing  mass,  was  to  put  all  in 
writing,  and  to  hold  fast  by  the  manuscript.  And 
among  the  very  last  men  also,  who  should  be  en- 
couraged to  discard  the  manuscript  in  preaching 
is  he  on  whom  nature  has  bestowed  the  gift  of 


204  METHODS    OF  DELIVERY: 

extreme  volubility.  Of  all  men,  he  should  be  held 
rigidly  and  uniformly  to  the  habit  of  careful  wri- 
ting. To  him  the  well-known  phrase  "fatal  facil- 
ity" should  be  a  never-forgotten  warning.  They 
have  attained  to  the  greatest  proficiency  in  un- 
written speech  who,  like  Sheridan  and  Robert 
Hall,  have  broken  down  utterly  when  first  at- 
tempting it.  Let  him,  and  only  him,  try  it,  who, 
trembling  at  the  thought,  yet  feels  that  the  capacity 
for  it  is  in  him,  and  by  the  grace  of  God  ought 
and  must  come  out;  and  it  will  come. 

But  having  resolved  to  speak  rather  than  read, 
and  to  speak  without  having  first  written,  the 
question  at  once  arises,  how  shall  the  resolution 
be  carried  into  effect  }  How  can  the  power  to 
extemporize  be  acquired  .''  To  that  question  the 
most  varied  answers  have  been  given.  Different 
men  have  acquired  the  power  by  very  different 
processes.  The  essential  thing  is  the  purpose  to 
acquire  it.  Where  there  is  a  will,  there  is  always 
a  way.  A  resolute  will  is  sure  to  find  its  own 
best  way.  One  man,  caught  perhaps  in  some 
unexpected  emergency,  is  obliged  to  speak  with- 
out his  manuscript,  and  discovers  to  his  amaze- 
ment that  he  possesses  the  power  without  having 
suspected  its  presence.  He  had  been  slowly  but 
unconsciously  acquiring  it.  Others  set  to  work 
deliberately,  though  sometimes  in  very  strange 
ways,  to  acquire  it.  One  writes  in  part  and 
practices  in  filling  in  extemporaneously,  —  like 
one  trying  to  learn  to  swim  by  the  aid  of  cork 
floats  and  bladders.  Another  reads  carefully  in 
the  pulpit,  but  endeavors  to  fit  himself  for  laying 
aside  his  manuscript  by  the  practice  of  off-hand 


EXTEMPORANEOUS   PREACHING.  205 

talking  in  the  conference  meeting  and  to  the 
Sunday-school  children,  utterly  forgetting  that 
off-hand  talking  is  in  no  sense  proper  training  for 
good  extemporaneous  preaching.  Loose  talk  is 
neither  itself  good  preaching,  nor  a  fit  prepara- 
tion for  it.  The  extemporaneous  sermon,  to  be 
acceptable  or  even  tolerable,  should  be  as  rigid 
in  logic,  as  compact  and  exact  in  thought,  though 
not  as  formal  in  the  construction  of  its  sentences, 
as  any  writing  could  make  it. 

One  thing  we  may  regard  as  certain:  whoever 
will  acquire  the  power  of  suitably  discussing  the 
great  themes  of  the  pulpit  in  unwritten  lan- 
guage, must  first  train  himself  to  close  thinking 
and  careful  expression.  Rant  and  rhapsody  and 
declamation  and  rambling  garrulity,  sometimes 
known  as  extemporaneous  preaching,  are  a  dis- 
grace to  Christianityand  always  offensive  to  people 
of  discernment.  The  first  thing  always  is,  clear 
and  just  thought,  with  its  appropriate  expression. 
To  give  this  extemporaneously  is  possible  only 
for  him  who  has  trained  himself  to  just  thinking 
and  speaking.  To  handle  real  and  logical  thought 
of  any  kind  and  anywhere  extemporaneously,  will 
prepare  one  to  handle  good  thought  in  the  same 
way  in  the  pulpit.  Forty  years  ago,  in  all  our  New 
England  colleges,  students  were  trained  in  the 
then  existing  debating  societies  for  this  kind  of 
public  speaking.  Unfortunately,  in  the  secret  fra- 
ternities that  have  supplanted  the  old  debating 
societies,  the  pen  and  the  social  instincts  have 
either  driven  out  debate  or  from  paucity  of  num- 
bers reduced  it  to  n'nsignificance;  and  the  young 
men  now  entering  public  life  have  little  of  the 


206  METHODS    OF  DELIVERY: 

power  of  extemporaneous  address  that  character- 
ized their  fathers.  The  only  point  at  which  most 
young  men  now  looking  forward  to  the  pulpit  are 
accustomed  to  begin  thinking  and  speaking  on 
their  legs,  is  in  the  Theological  Seminary,  and 
thither,  unfortunately,  most  of  them  take  along 
with  them  the  spirit  and  the  habits  of  the  college. 
Every  Theological  school,  it  seems  to  me,  ought 
to  have  its  debating  society,  and  every  student 
should  participate  in  its  debates,  voluntarily  if  he 
will,  compulsorily  if  he  must,  as  an  essential  part 
of  his  clerical  training. 

To  speak  uniformly  well  without  writing,  one 
should  also  accustom  himself  to  uniform  correct- 
ness of  speech  in  his  ordinary  conversation.  Too 
many  educated  men  allow  themselves  to  use  in- 
accurate, not  to  say  inelegant,  colloquialisms  in 
their  every-day  talk,  in  which  nothing  could  in- 
duce them  knowingly  to  indulge  in  public  address. 
But  in  their  unguarded  moments  out  slip  the  of- 
fensive words  and  phrases,  even  in  their  most  ele- 
vated and  solemn  discourses.  Their  only  safety  is 
in  always  eschewing  them.  Choice  language  is 
not  like  a  dress-coat  that  can  be  put  on  or  off  as 
occasion  calls;  it  must  come,  if  at  all,  from  within, 
and  to  be  natural  and  effective  must  come  with- 
out effort.  The  best  language,  like  true  gen- 
tlemanliness,  has  its  seat  in  the  depths  of  the 
soul,  and  cannot  be  put  on  as  we  change  our 
apparel. 

But  pray  let  no  one  suppose  that  mere  practice 
in  extempore  speaking  is  the  only  requisite  to 
real  success  in  it.  Practice  may  give  self-pos- 
session and  facility  of  utterance;  but  these  are  by 


EXTEMPORANEOUS   PREACHING.  207 

no  means  the  prime  qualities  of  the  art.  The  kind 
of  utterance  is  incomparably  more  important  than 
the  mode  of  it.  Facile  assurance  may  catch  the 
ear  of  the  vulgar;  but  it  can  neither  hold  nor 
instruct.  No  one  can  acquire  that  mastery  of 
language  which  entitles  him  to  dispense  with  the 
use  of  his  manuscript,  who  has  not  first  trained 
himself  to  accuracy  by  a  most  painstaking  use  of 
his  pen.  Every  man  has  his  own  style,  his 
peculiar  collocations  of  words,  and  his  special 
methods  of  constructing  sentences.  And  every 
one's  style  is  simply  the  result  of  his  practice  and 
his  pruning.  To  make  sure  that  his  style  is  the 
best  of  which  he  is  capable,  let  him  write,  so 
that,  in  criticising  it,  he  may  have  his  eyes  as 
well  as  his  ears  to  help  him.  He  who  pro- 
poses to  extemporize  his  sermons  should  write, 
not  imilta,  but  umltinn — a  little,  but  with  the 
utmost  care — a  care  that  shall  expend  itself  in 
tireless  revisions  and  re-revisions;  as  long  as  he 
continues  so  to  speak,  he  should  continue  so  to 
write. 

And  whoever  will  preach  without  previous  wri- 
ting, should  also  use  all  diligence  in  making  him- 
self the  possessor  of  as  ample  a  vocabulary  as 
possible,  and  should  become  as  skillful  as  he  can 
in  the  use  of  synonymous  terms — as  expert  as 
possible  in  the  selection  of  the  one  out  of  many 
that  shall  express  the  exact  shade  of  his  meaning. 
His  besetting  dangers  are  stereotyped  language 
and  vagueness  of  expression.  Against  these  dan- 
gers, the  best  safeguards,  next  to  one's  own  careful 
writing,  is  a  critical  study  of  the  best  English 
authors:  that  kind  of  study,  I  mean,  by  which  an 


208  METHODS    OF  DELIVERY: 

author's  paragraphs  are  so  thoroughly  dissected, 
that  one  gets  a  kind  of  insight  into  the  very 
process  of  his  thinking  in  constructing  them;  a 
study  in  which  various  authors  are  critically  com- 
pared, and  a  study  to  which,  unfortunately,  by 
far  too  little  attention  is  given  in  our  American 
educational  institutions.  The  ideally  perfect  sys- 
tem of  education  in  our  schools  of  learning  will  not 
be  reached  till  our  mother  tongue,  the  language 
in  which  students  are  afterward  to  plead  at  the 
bar,  to  write  for  the  press,  or  to  preach  in  the  pul- 
pit— the  language  on  a  skillful  use  of  which  the 
preacher's  success  so  largely  depends, — shall  be 
made  the  subject  of  more  systematic,  more  con- 
tinuous and  more  thoroughly  critical  study  than 
it  ever  yet  has  been. 

Assuming  now  that  one  has  gone  far  enough  in 
his  practice  and  experience  to  resolve  on  appearing 
before  an  audience  with  an  extemporaneous  ser- 
mon, the  final  questions  come.  How  shall  he  pro- 
ceed, and  in  what  form  shall  he  take  the  sermon, 
or  any  part  of  it,  into  the  pulpit  with  him  .-•  In 
respect  to  the  first  of  these  questions  the  one  true 
answer,  doubtless,  is,  let  him  be  sure  that  he 
has  a  thoroughly  clear  conception  of  precisely 
what  he  proposes  to  do,  and  let  him  assure  him- 
self that  he  has  complete  mastery  of  the  entire 
thought  that  he  intends  to  present.  But  in  order 
to  definiteness  of  purpose  and  to  mastery  of  his 
thoughts,  his  subject  must  have  been  so  minutely 
analyzed  that  he  sees  through  every  part  of  it. 
When  thus  analyzed  and  completely  grasped,  the 
whole  subject  is  within  his  control,  and  can  be 
molded  into  shape  as  easily  as  the  potter  molds 


EXTEMPORANEOUS   PREACHING.  209 

his  clay.  When  one  thus  has  his  subject  in  hand, 
he  is  prepared  to  preach  on  it  extemporaneously. 
But  to  get  it  thus  in  hand  requires,  in  the  be- 
ginner, patience  and  study  and  concentration  of 
mind  more  than  sufficient  to  have  written  it  out 
as  sermons  are  ordinarily  written.  And  even  to 
the  practiced  hand,  everything  depends  on  com- 
plete mastery  of  one's  subject.  It  need  not  sur- 
prise us  then  that  when  Robert  Hall  was  asked 
to  name  the  first  requisite  for  extemporaneous 
preaching  he  promptly  replied:  "preparation;" 
and  when  asked  to  name  the  second,  with  equal 
promptness  replied:  "  preparation,"  and  for  the 
third  gave  the  same  answer. 

Please  banish,  therefore,  from  your  minds  all 
notions  of  great  sermons  on  small  preparations. 
Impromptu  thoughts  and  deep  emotions  cannot  be 
safely  expected  to  come  just  when  wanted.  The 
only  inspiration  that  any  man  who  is  to  extem- 
porize can  rely  on  with  safety,  is  that  which 
springs  from  being  filled  with  the  thought  and 
spirit  of  his  subject.  Once  in  a  great  while,  a 
man  of  large  resources  may  under  sudden  and 
severe  pressure  be  able  on  the  spur  of  the  mo- 
ment to  call  a  great  sermon  into  being;  but  his 
ability  to  do  it  is  the  product  of  a  life  of  toil,  and 
of  uniform  fidelity  in  all  his  ordinary  prepara- 
tions. No  man  can  make  something  out  of  noth- 
ing. There  must  be  latent  resources  somewhere 
that  he  can  fall  back  on  and  call  into  use.  Many 
of  the  famous  specimens  of  impromptu  eloquence, 
of  which  tradition  tells  us,  were  either,  like  Sheri- 
dan's wit,  the  result  of  the  most  careful  prepara- 
tion, or  were  the  outburst  of  pent-up  thought 


210  METHODS    OF  DELIVERY: 

and  emotion  that  had  slowly  accumulated  and 
only  awaited  the  occasion  that  should  let  them 
forth. 

But  granting  that  thoroughness  of  preparation 
is  the  one  great  requisite,  there  still  remains  the 
choice  to  be  made  among  methods  of  prepara- 
tion. Here  there  is  ample  opportunity  for  choice. 
And  it  is  plain  that  the  method  of  preparation 
must  materially  affect  the  actual  delivery.  The 
mind  in  speaking  will  repeat  the  precise  pro- 
cesses which  it  passed  through  in  its  final  pre- 
paration for  speaking;  in  other  words,  the  speaker 
will  take  his  sermon  into  the  pulpit  with  him  in 
the  precise  form  in  which  he  has  prepared  it. 
Let  me  explain:  he  can  write  out  parts  of  the 
discourse,  which  he  commits  to  memory,  filling 
in  the  interstices  extemporaneously;  or  he  can 
write  and  memorize  simply  the  heads  or  divisions 
of  his  discourse;  he  can  write  the  several  heads, 
and,  placing  them  before  him,  recur  to  them  as 
he  passes  from  one  to  another;  he  can  write  out 
a  full  skeleton,  to  which  he  momentarily  recurs 
as  he  advances;  or,  thinking  the  whole  discourse 
minutely  through  from  beginning  to  end,  he  may 
carry  the  whole  in  his  mind,  not  as  something 
which  he  has  written  out  and  memorized,  but  as 
something  mentally  elaborated,  and  having  a 
present  conscious  mental  existence. 

Now,  of  all  the  methods  we  have  enumerated, 
or  others  that  might  be  named,  the  last  mentioned 
seems  to  me  to  be  entitled  to  a  decided  prefer- 
ence. All  the  others  either  expose  to  needless 
risks,  or  hamper  the  mind  in  its  action.  If  in  the 
use  of  the  first  two  methods  memory  fails  one,  it 


EXTEMPORANEOUS   PREACHING.  211 

throws  him  into  helpless  confusion.  While  mem- 
ory is  in  action,  also,  the  offices  of  the  other  powers 
are  suspended.  No  one,  furthermore,  in  extem- 
poraneous speaking  can  recur  to  any  kind  or 
amount  of  written  aid  while  speaking,  without  a 
momentary  arrest  of  mental  movement.  Every 
such  arrest  is  a  direct  loss  of  mental  momentum. 
It  is  like  shutting  off  the  motive  power  of  ma- 
chinery, all  of  which  comes  suddenly  to  a  stand- 
still. But,  if  the  subject  of  the  discourse  has 
been  properly  analyzed,  if  the  line  of  thought  to 
be  pursued  has  been  clearly  and  logically  laid  out, 
and  has  been  brought  mentally  and  completely 
in  hand,  then  no  written  brief,  or  plan,  or  skele- 
ton, to  be  recurred  to  in  speaking  will  be  any- 
thing else  than  a  clog,  an  actual  obstruction  to 
the  mental  movement  of  the  speaker. 

Now,  that  this  is  so,  will  be  evident,  I  think,  to 
any  one  who  reflects  for  a  moment  on  the  several 
mental  processes  that  must  be  simultaneously 
carried  on  by  the  speaker  during  the  act  of  speak- 
ing. First  of  all  there  stands  in  his  mind  the 
proposition  or  theme,  on  which  every  thought  or 
argument  presented  is  supposed  to. have  a  more 
or  less  direct  bearing.  That  bearing  must  be 
kept  distinctly  in  mind.  Each  argument  or 
thought  is  to  have  its  special  relation  to  all  the 
others;  that  relation  must  not  be  lost  sight  of. 
Each  argument,  also,  is  to  have  its  parts  or  steps, 
expressed  in  paragraphs,  each  of  which  is  related 
to  all,  and  all  of  which  the  speaker  must  keep 
distinctly  before  him.  Every  paragraph  is  com- 
posed of  sentences,  and  sentences  may  have  their 
clauses,  all  of  which  must  be  properly  adjusted,  one 


212  METHODS    OF  DELIVERY: 

to  another.  And,  finally,  all  the  words  of  the 
clauses  and  sentences  must  be  marshalled  into 
place  on  the  instant,  and  the  whole  fashioned 
into  form  just  as  rapidly  as  the  words  can  find 
utterance. 

But  in  all  these  several  processes,  it  is  evident 
that  the  less  of  special  attention  required  by  any 
one  of  them,  the  better  for  all  the  others.  If  all 
shall  have  been  so  completely  provided  for  by 
previous  thinking,  that  neither  one  requires  more 
than  its  specific  share  of  attention  in  speaking, 
the  speaker  can  bring  each  faculty  to  its  dis- 
tinctive work,  and  thus  be  able  to  do  his  best. 
And  the  more  completely  each  and  all  those  pro- 
cesses, that  have  been  previously  gone  through 
with,  can  be  kept  in  mind  at  the  moment  of 
speaking,  the  freer  will  be  the  mental  movements 
of  the  speaker.  And  no  method  of  preparation 
can  insure  so  immediate  and  so  exact  a  repro- 
duction of  the  processes,  and  can  so  enable  the 
mind  to  keep  them  all  in  parallel  movement,  as 
that  which  elaborates  all  mentally  and  carries 
them  all  into  the  pulpit,  not  on  paper,  nor  as 
memorized  from  paper,  but  as  in  the  mind  itself, 
ready  to  spring  into  consciousness  the  moment 
they  are  wanted. 

Nor  need  there  be  any  difficulty  in  carrying  them 
all  in  the  mind.  Just  thought  always  has  its  own 
natural  order  of  arrangement.  That  order  may 
be  simply  logical,  it  may  be  chronological,  it 
may  be  the  order  of  place  or  time,  the  order  of 
cause  and  effect,  of  resemblance,  of  contrast,  or 
of  other  relations;  but  it  is  always  an  order  that 
once  clearly  seen  will  afterwards  suggest  itself 


EXTEMPORANEOUS    PR  EACH  INC.  213 

without  effort  of  memory.  A  sermon  once  clearly 
thought  out,  and  the  just  order  of  its  thoughts 
distinctly  seen,  needs  no  paper  to  assist  one  in 
keeping  it  in  mind. 

But  there  is  one  requisite  in  preparing  for  the 
pulpit,  whatever  may  be  the  method  of  delivering 
one's  discourse,  that  is  more  vital  than  all  others. 
Of  that,  permit  me,  in  concluding  this  course  of 
lectures,  to  remind  you.  The  mental  prepara- 
tions, on  which  we  have  so  much  dwelt,  are  in- 
dispensable; but  that  of  the  heart  is  still  more  so. 
Mere  work  of  the  intellect  can  reach  and  move 
only  the  intellects  of  your  hearers.  But  Christian 
truth  is  more  for  the  heart  than  for  the  intellect, 
though  it  be  only  through  the  intellect  that  the 
heart  can  be  reached  and  changed.  It  is  the 
heart  only  that  can  move  other  hearts.  Be 
assured,  there  is  no  real  power  in  any  kind  of 
preaching  that  springs  not  out  of  the  hidden 
depths  of  the  soul,  that  is  not  an  embodiment 
of  the  real  experience  of  the  preacher.  Attune 
then,  first  of  all,  your  own  hearts  to  the  truths 
you  propose  to  urge  on  the  attention  of  others. 
In  an  age  like  ours,  of  great  apparent  penetration 
but  of  shallow  emotion,  there  is  no  means  of  pro- 
tecting one's  self  against  error  and  no  resource 
in  battling  against  it  or  in  enforcing  the  author- 
ity of  truth  on  others  like  that  of  a  complete  sur- 
render of  soul  to  the  control  of  the  personal  Christ. 
Let  his  gospel  do  its  full  work  in  molding  your 
characters  after  his  divine  pattern;  then  will  your 
words  be  instinct  with  a  life  no  eloquence  can 
impart,  and  carry  with  them  something  of  the 
authority  with  which  the  gospel  was  first  spoken 


214  METHODS    OF  DELIVERY. 

to  the  world;  and  then,  finally,  so  certain  as  truth 
shall  ultimately  prevail,  yourselves  and  the  gospel 
you  have  preached  shall  be  vindicated  before  the 
eyes  of  the  universe,  and  the  blessing  of  the  eter- 
nal God  shall  be  your  unending  reward. 


THE  END. 


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